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HISTORY 

AND 

STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



BY 

ADDISON ERWIN SHELDON 

•I 

SECRETARY NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

LECTURER ON NEBRASKA HISTORY AND INSTITTITIONS 

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 




LINCOLN — CHICAGO — DALLAS 

THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING CO. 

1919 






Copyright 1913 and 1919 
THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 



©CI.A559451 
JAN 19 19^0 

^wo I 



o 



^ PREFACE 

STORIES are the harp strings of history, transforming 
the past into melody and rhythm. The best stories 
hve forever in the human mind. They greet us in the 
Latin, Teutonic, and Celtic tongues, surprise us in the 
ancient Greek, Arabic, and Hindoo literature, and astonish 
us in the rude folk tales of primitive peoples who have no 
written language. The demand for a good story is as 
wide, as unsatisfied, as human longing, and the search for 
a new one as difficult and elusive as the discovery of a 
new element in nature. 

Stories are the inspiration of patriotism and of home 
virtues. No land is loved without its place tales, and no 
nation became great without the lift of noble examples and 
ideals in the stories of its common people. Every hill and 
mountain must find its hero, every vale and prairie its 
legend, ere it becomes invested with living human in- 
terest. 

With the flight of years the deeds of pioneers in a new 
land are transformed into the hero tales and place legends 
of the later generations. It is well that in the process what 
is brave, generous, and strong survives; what is common, 
mean, and trivial perishes. In Nebraska the pioneer period 
is just past. The pioneers are with us still. Men yet live 
who knew these prairies as a sea of grass wherein appeared 
no island of human habitation. We have yet with us those 
who hunted deer and buffalo on the sites of our cities, who 
followed the overland trails and faced hostile Indians where 
now extend fruitful fields of corn, wheat, and alfalfa. 
Children born in sod houses, dugouts, and even in emigrant 
wagons now direct the affairs of our commonwealth. The 
pioneer days are past, but their witnesses are in our midst. 



iv PREFACE 

It is well for us to recount their deeds while they are still 
among us. 

The purpose of this little book is to present, in story 
form, the most important facts in Nebraska history in such 
language that a child able to read may get the story and a 
grown man or woman may find interest in both fact and 
story. 

It is twelve years since the idea of this volume was con- 
ceived and the first story written. Of the hundreds of 
good and true stories of our history only a few could be 
chosen for the present volume. As the list of short stories 
grew and formed itself naturally into a series reaching from 
the Stone Age to the present time, there arose a call for a 
condensed narrative which should connect the different 
periods and form an historical thread upon which the short 
stories might be strung. The response to this call is the 
Story of Nebraska in a series of short connected sketches. 
Thus in its final form the book presents a brief history of 
our state and stories which seem significant and truly 
characteristic in her development. 

Grateful acknowledgment is due to the many persons 
who have entered into the spirit of this volume and aided 
in its progress. First among these, I am indebted to her 
whom I need not name, whose clear insight and creative 
criticism as a native daughter of Nebraska have been the 
largest elements in securing its present form. From Pro- 
fessors Howard W. Caldwell, Clark E. Persinger, Lawrence 
Bruner, Erwin H. Barbour, and George E. Condra, of the 
University of Nebraska, have come valuable aids and sug- 
gestions. Important service in gathering material was 
rendered by the following persons : 

Mr. James Murie, Pawnee, Oklahoma; Mrs. Lucy 

•Manville Sprague, Lincoln, Nebraska; Hon. C. W. Beal, 

Broken Bow, Nebraska; Supt. E. T. Ingle, Ft. McPherson 

Cemetery; Colonel James Hunton, Ft. Laramie, Wyoming; 

Hon. H. T. Clarke, Omaha, Nebraska; Hon. H. G. Taylor, 



PREFACE V 

Central City, Nebraska; Mr. James F. Hanson, Fremont, 
Nebraska; Colonel C. W. Allen, Merriman, Nebraska; 
Colonel C. P. Jordan, Wood, South Dakota; Mrs. Daniel 
Freeman, Beatrice, Nebraska; Mr. E. A. Kilian (deceased), 
Manhattan, Kansas; Mr. Robert Harvey, Lincoln, Nebraska; 
Hon. Addison Wait, Lincoln, Nebraska; Hon. C. H. Aldrich, 
Lincoln, Nebraska; Mr. R. F. Gilder, Omaha, Nebraska; 
Hon. T. H. Tibbies, Omaha, Nebraska; Mr. S. D. Butcher, 
Kearney, Nebraska; Mr. Gerrit Fort, Union Pacific Rail- 
way, Omaha, Nebraska; Mr. U. G. Cornell, Lincoln, 
Nebraska; Miss Martha M. Turner, Lincoln, Nebraska; 
Morrill Geological Expeditions, Lincoln, Nebraska; Hon. 
S. C. Bassett, Gibbon, Nebraska; Rev. Michael A. Shine, 
Plattsmouth, Nebraska; Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, 
Nebraska. 

For use of copyrighted illustrations acknowledgment is 
due to these: Hon. R. B. Brower, St. Cloud, Minnesota; 
Lathrop C. Harper, New York City; Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio; A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, Illinois; 
American Folk Lore Society. 

It is my hope that this little book may not only serve a 
present need, by presenting in brief form for busy people 
the story of our state, but may have a place in bringing 
together the best in the Nebraska life which has been, for 
the enjoyment and inspiration of the Nebraska that is to be. 

Addison E. Sheldon. 



CONTENTS 

PART I. STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

The Story of Coronado 1 

Don Diego de Penalosa . 6 

Baron La Hontan and Mathieu Sagean ... 9 

The Spanish Caravan 12 

The Mallet Brothers 15 

Blackbird 18 

Lewis and Clark 24 

How THE Spanish Flag Came Down 29 

John Colter's Escape 31 

Manuel Lisa 34 

The Return of the Astorians . . . . . .41 

Major Long's Expedition 45 

Old Fort Atkinson 50 

Bellevue 55 

George Catlin 59 

Prince Maximilian 62 

Scott's Bluff 68 

The First Nebraska Missionaries 70 

Father DeSmet 77 

John C. Fremont 82 

The Overland Trails 85 

Lone Tree 92 

Logan Fontenelle 94 

The Mormon Cow 97 

Slavery in Nebraska . 100 

The Surveyors 103 

The First Homestead .110 

The Pawnees 114 

Court House Rock 120 

Major Frank North and the Pawnee Scouts . 122 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

The Rock Bluffs Dinner Party 129 

The Battle of Arickaree Fork or Beecher 

Island 131 

The First Railroad 136 

A Stage Coach Hero of the Little Blue . . 139 

The Prairie Fire 142 

The Arrow that Pinned Two Boys Together . 145 

Two Sioux Chiefs 146 

Great Storms 158 

Old Fort Kearny 165 

Fort Laramie 167 

The Story of the Poncas 169 

Bright Eyes 175 

The Herd Law 178 

Two Crows 181 

The Grasshoppers 183 

Lost in the Sand Hills 187 

An Open Well 192 

Fort McPherson Military Cemetery .... 198 

A Railroad Fireman's Jump 201 

Nebraska's Great Seal 202 

Nebraska's Flower 204 

Arbor Day 206 

PART II. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

I. Earliest Nebraska 213 

11. Nebraska Under Three Flags .... 218 

III. Nebraska Indians as the White Men Found 

Them 226 

IV. Making and Naming Nebraska .... 231 

V. Nebraska as a Territory 237 

VI. Nebraska as a State 260 

Glossary . 307 

Index 309 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

(Approximately half of these illustrations are from original photographs taken by the author. 
The E. G. Clements collection and S. D. Butcher collection of Nebraska photo- 
graphs are in the author's collection of Illustrated Nebraska.) 

Page. 

The First Printed Picture of a Buffalo 3 

A QuiviRA Grass Hut 4 

{Courtesy of K. B. Brower, St. Cloud, Minnesota) 

QuiviRA Tomahawks 5 

A Spanish Stirrup Found in Nebraska 7 

La Hontan's Map of the Nebraska Region 10 

A Spanish Sword and a Basket-Hilted Cavalry Saber Found in 

Nebraska 13 

The Platte River 16 

Blackbird Hill 21 

{From Thwaites's "Earhj Western Travels.'' Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) >: 

Pictured Rocks near Blackbird Hill 22 

Lewis and Clark 24 

The Lewis and Clark Monument at Fort Calhoun, Nebraska 26 

Th^e Clark Monument at St. Louis 28 

Blackfoot Warriors 31 

{From Thwaites^s "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 
Manuel Lisa 34 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

British Flag on Nebraska Rocks, 1907 36 

"Aunt Manuel," First Known White Woman in Nebraska . . 38 

Rosalie Lisa Ely 39 

Monument to the Astorians at Bellevue, Nebraska .... 43 
Council with Otoes by Major Long's Expedition 46 

{From Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 
Map of the Great American Desert as Made by Major Long, 1820 48 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 
Plan of Fort Atkinson, Nebraska, 1819-1827 50 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 
Flint Lock and Cannon Ball from Fort Atkinson .... 53 

A Fort Atkinson Gravestone 53 

The First School Kept in Nebraska 54 

Bellevue in 1833 56 

{From Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 
Bellevue Woods as Seen To-day. Top of Child's Point, Look- 
ing East 57 

The Steamer Yellowstone 60 

{From Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 
Missouri, Oto and Puncah Indians, 1833 66 

{From Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 

Scott's Bluff 68 

The Building op an Earth Lodge . . . 71 

Old Otoe Mission 75 

ix 



X ILLUSTRATIONS 

Father De Smet 77 

{From Chittenden & Richardson's "Life, Letters & Travels of Father 
De Smet." Francis P. Harper, New York) 

Indian Welcome to Father De Smet 80 

{From Chittenden & Richardson's "Life, Letters & Travels of Father 
De Smet." Francis P. Harper, New York) 

John C. Fremont 82 

Map of Overland Trails and Historical Places in Nebraska . 84 

{Drawing bij Miss Martha Turner) 

Old Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail 86 

Emigrant Train Crossing the Plains 88 

Ezra Meeker and His Oregon Trail Wagon 89 

Oregon Trail Monument at Kearney 89 

Stone Marking Oregon Trail in Nebraska . .... 91 

Lone Tree Monuivient 92 

Logan Fontenelle 94 

Site of Fontenelle' s Grave near Bellevue 95 

Mound Marking the Burial Place of Lieutenant Grattan and 

his Men 99 

Act Abolishing Slavery in Nebraska 101 

{Photo from original in Statehouse) 

Map Showing First Plan for Nebraska Survey, 1854 . . . 103 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

Nebraska-Kansas Monument, Starting Point of Nebraska Surveys 105 

{Drawing hy Miss Martha Turner) 

Map Showing Progress of Surveys in Eastern Nebraska, 1856 106 

{Drau^ing hy Miss Martha Turner) 

Robert Harvey, an Early Surveyor, and Outfit 108 

Daniel Freeman, First Homesteader in the United States . . Ill 

The First Homestead 112 

Pawnee Earth Lodge 114 

Ancient Pawnee Pottery 115 

Court House Rock and Jail Rock 120 

Major Frank North 122 

Surviving Pawnee Scouts, 1911 124 

Rock Bluffs House where Election Was Held in 1866 . . . 130 

Lieutenant George A. Forsyth 131 

Arickaree or Beecher Island Battlefield, 1910 134 

Union Pacific Railroad Train Crossing Missouri River at Omaha, 

1866 137 

Stage Coach 139 

{Dravnng hy Miss Martha Turner) 

Monument Marking Site of the Stage Coach Race .... 141 

An Early Prairie Fire 143 

{From Catlin) 

Red Cloud 147 

Spotted Tail 151 

Ruins of Old Red Cloud Agency, 1911 152 

Fort Robinson, Sioux County, Nebraska. Site of Red Cloud 

Agency and Scene op Important Incidents in Sioux Indian War 154 

Red Cloud's Tent at Pine Ridge, 1904 156 

Pioneer Seeking Shelter 163 

Old Fort Kearny Block House at Nebraska City . . .165 

{Drawing hy Miss Martha Turner) 



ILLUSTRATIONS xi 

Old Earthworks at Fort Kearny, 1907 165 

Fallen Cottonwood Tree on Site of Headquarters, 1st Nebraska 

Regiment at Fort Kearny, 1864, as Seen in 1907 .... 166 

Fort Laramie in 1848 167 

Ruins of Army Hospital at Fort Laramie 168 

PoNCA Land as Painted for Maximilian, 1833 169 

{From Thivaites's "Early Western Travels.'' Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 

Standing Bear and Family in 1904 172 

Bright Eyes (Instha Theajviba), Mrs. T. H. Tibbles .... 175 

Herd Law Act of 1870 179 

(Photo from original in Statehouse), 

Two Crows (Cahae Numba) 181 

Wajepa 182 

In Grasshopper Days 184 

The Sand Hills 187 

A Typical Frontier Well and House 196 

Fort McPherson Military Cemetery 200 

Nebraska Territorial Seal 203 

Nebraska State Seal 203 

The Goldenrod, Nebraska's Flower 204 

First Arbor Day Proclamation 207 

{Photo from original in Statehouse) 

J. Sterling Morton and Robert W. Furnas 209 

A Typical Pioneer Nebraska Tree 210 

Ancient Nebraska Tools 215 

{Courtesy of R. F. Gilder, Omaha, Nebraska) 

Ancient Nebraska House 216 

{Courtesy of R. F. Gilder, Omaha, Nebraska) 

Spanish, French and English Flags 218 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 
Map Showing Grants by the English King and their Relation 

to Nebraska 222 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

American Flag 223 

Map Showing Land Ceded by Indian Tribes in Nebraska . . 225 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

Map Showing Country Known to the Omahas 226 

The Buffalo Hunt 227 

{From. Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio) 

Omaha Mission Building in Thurston County, Built 1856 . . 228 

An Omaha Indian Village in 1860 229 

Stephen A. Douglas 233 

Nebraska-Kansas Bill 235 

{From original at Washington, D. C.) 

Map of Nebraska Territory, 1854 237 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

Governor Francis Burt 238 

Nebraska Ferry Across Elkhorn River, 1854 239 

Acting Governor Thomas B. Cuming 239 

First Territorial Capital, 1855 240 

First Claim Cabin in Nebraska 241 

Peta Lesharu — Chief op the Pawnee Nation 242 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mormons Setting out from Florence, Nebraska, to Cross the 

Plains 244 

First County Map of Nebraska, 1854 245 

{Draunng by Miss Martha Turner) 

County Map of Nebraska in 1856 247 

{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

Nebraska Wildcat Currency 248 

Second Territorial Capital, Afterward Omaha High School . 250 

Governor William A. Richardson 251 

Governor Samuel W. Black 253 

Pawnee Council Rock 254 

Governor Alvin Saunders 257 

Outline Map of Nebraska in 1863 258 

(Drawing by Miss Martha Turner) 

First State Capital at Lincoln, 1869 ' 260 

The Three Founders of Lincoln 261 

First Log House in Lincoln 261 

A Pioneer Dugout 262 

Governor David Butler 262 

Governor William H. James 263 

Governor Robert W. Furnas 264 

Governor Silas W. Garber 265 

Constitution of 1875 with Signatures 267 

(Photo from original in Statehouse) 

Governor Albinus Nance 268 

Governor James W. Dawes 270 

A Western Cattle Range 271 

A Frontier Nebraska Granger 272 

Governor John M. Thayer 272 

Nebraska State Capitol in 1889 273 

A Farmers' Alliance Convention 275 

Congressman O. M. Kem of Custer County at Home (First Con- 
gressman in United States Elected from a Sod House) . 276 

Governor James E. Boyd 277 

Governor Lorenzo Crounse 278 

Governor Silas A. Holcomb 279 

William Jennings Bryan in 1896 280 

Governor William A. Poynter 281 

Governor Charles H. Dietrich 282 

Governor Ezra P. Savage 282 

Governor John H. Mickey 283 

A Nebraska Corn Crop 284 

Threshing Winter Wheat 284 

In Line for a Homestead 286 

Governor George L. Sheldon 287 

Governor A. C. Shallenberger 287 

Governor Chester H. Aldrich 288 

Governor John H. Morehead 289 

Map of Nebraska, 1911 facing page 290 

Governor Keith Neville 291 

Governor Samuel R. McKelvie 297 

Monument to Abraham Lincoln on Statehouse Grounds, 

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1912 304 

(Courtesy of Roy Hindmarsh, Lincoln, Nebraska) 



PART I 

Stories of Nebraska History 



THE STORY OF CORONADO 

FRANCISCO VASQUEZ CORONADO and his soldiers 
were the first white men to visit the Nebraska-Kansas 
plains. Coronado was a Spanish general who came to 
Mexico to seek his fortune in the New World. While 
there wonderful stories were brought by Fray Marcos, a 
monk, who had traveled a thousand miles north, into the 
country now called Arizona. In that land it was said 
were the Seven Cities of Cibola, with houses built of stone 
many stories high, and great abundance of gold and silver, 
turquoises, cloth, sheep, cows, and tame partridges. All 
the Spaniards in Mexico were eager to take possession of 
such a wonderful land and to seize its riches. Coronado 
was the lucky man who was made general of the army which 
was sent out to conquer these famous seven cities. Three 
hundred Spaniards on horseback and a thousand Indians, 
with a long train of horses and cattle carrying food and 
ammunition, started in February, 1540, on this fine errand. 
After a long and hard journey across the desert the army 
arrived at the towns of the Zuni and Hopi Indians in 
Arizona. They found there what one finds to-day — a 
desert with houses made of sun-baked mud, the homes of 
poor and peaceful Indians who make pottery and weave 
a little cloth and raise corn and beans and fowls. The 
riches and splendor of the wonderful Seven Cities of Cibola 
were a dream of the desert. Like many other things in 

1 



2 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

life, the farther off, the more wonderful — the nearer, the 
more common. 

The Spaniards were very much disappointed. They had 
come so far to conquer a people who were hardly worth 
conquering. It would never do to go back to Mexico with 
nothing to show for their long journey. So Coronado 
marched eastward across New Mexico into the valley of 
the Rio Grande. Stretched along this valley for many 
miles were villages of the Pueblo Indians. They also were 
poor and peaceful, irrigating little patches of the valley 
in order to raise corn and beans, making cloth and pottery, 
and living in sun-baked mud houses. These Pueblo Indians 
treated the Spaniards kindly and furnished them food. 
The army camped there for the winter. Quarrels arose 
between the soldiers and the Indians. The soldiers stormed 
the villages, killed many of the Indians, and burned some 
whom they took prisoners. The Spaniards then tried to 
concihate the Indians so that they would go on raising food 
for them, but up and down the fair valley of the Rio Grande 
there were fear and hatred of the white men. 

At this time Coronado heard for the first time the story 
of the land of Quivira, far to the northeast. An Indian 
slave whom the Spaniards called the Turk, because they 
said he looked like a Turk, told the story. His home was 
far out on the plains, but he had been captured by the 
Pueblo Indians and held as a slave. It is supposed that 
he was a Pawnee Indian, for the Pawnees wore their hair 
in a peculiar way so that they resembled Turks. The 
story of Quivira told by the Indian slave was of a wonder- 
ful land far across the plains. There was a river six miles 
wide, and in it were fishes as big as horses, and upon it 
floated many great canoes with twenty rowers on a side. 
Some of these canoes carried sails, and the lords sat under 
awnings upon them, while the prows bore golden eagles. 
The king of Quivira, Tatarrax, slept under a great tree 
with golden bells on the branches. These bells sv/ung to 



THE STORY OF CORONADO 



3 




The First Printed Picture 
OF A Buffalo 



and fro in the winds which always blew, and their music 
lulled the king to sleep. The common people in Quivira 
had dishes of plated ware and the jugs and bowls were of 
gold. The king of Quivira worshiped a cross of gold and 
an image of a woman, the goddess of heaven. 

Stories like these filled the hearts of the Spaniards with 
longing to reach the land of Quivira and to help the people 
there to take care of its riches. 
On the 23d of April, 1541, Coro- 
nado and his army marched away 
from the Rio Grande valley, guid- 
ed by the Turk and by another 
Indian from the same region, 
whom they called Isopete. For 
thirty-five days they traveled out 
upon the high plains. These 
were so nearly level they could 
look as far as the eye would pierce 
and see no hill. They found great herds of buffalo, or 
'' humpbacked cows'' as they called them, on these plains, 
and Indians who traveled around among these cows, killing 
them for their flesh and skins — eating the flesh raw and 
making the skins into tents and clothing. The Indians 
had dogs to pull their tents from place to place, and had 
never seen horses until the Spaniards came. The Spanish 
army saw for the first time the American buffalo. None 
of these Indians who hunted the cows had ever heard of 
the rich land of Quivira with its gold and silver, its great 
canoes, and its king. Here the two guides began to tell dif- 
ferent stories, and confessed that the houses in Quivira were 
not quite so large as they had said, and the people not so rich. 

Coronado and his army had eaten all the corn they had 
brought with them for food. The land of Quivira was still 
said to be far to the north. A council was held and it was 
determined to send the army back to the Rio Grande, while 
Coronado with thirty horsemen and two guides pushed on 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



to find Quivira. So the army went back, and Coronado 
with his thirty men traveled on, eating nothing but raw 
buffalo meat. After crossing a great river, supposed to 
be the Arkansas, they came to the country of Quivira, 
forty-two days after parting from the army, or seventy- 
seven days after leaving the Rio Grande. 

Coronado says in his letter to the King of Spain, ''Where 
I reached Quivira it was in the fortieth degree (of latitude)." 
The fortieth degree forms the state line between Nebraska 
and Kansas. This would make Quivira in the Republican 
valley. Coronado found no gold, no silver, no bells tinkling 
from the trees, no fishes big as horses, and no boats with 
golden prows. He found Indians living in grass huts, grow- 
ing corn and beans and melons, eating raw buffalo meat 
and cutting it with stone knives. There were twenty-five 
of these grass hut villages, and the only metal seen in them 
was a piece of copper worn by a chief around his neck. 
Coronado went on for seventy-five miles through the vil- 
lages of Quivira and came 
to the country called 
Harahey. The chief of 
Harahey met them with 
two hundred men, all 
naked, with bows and 
arrows and ''some sort 
of things on their heads," 
which probably means 
the way they put up their 
hair, and suggests that 
they were Pawnees. Here 
the Turk confessed he 
had lied to the Spaniards about the riches of Quivira in 
order to lead the army off on the trackless plains where it 
would perish. "We strangled him that night so that he 
never waked up," is the way one of the Spaniards tells the 
story of what happened to the Turk. 




A Quivira Grass Hut. (Courtesy R. B. 
Brower, St. Cloud, Minn.) 



THE STORY OF CORONADO 




Coronado spent a month in Quivira and Harahey. He 
vvrote that the country was the best he had seen since 
leaving Spain, for the land was very fat and black, and well 
watered with rivulets and springs and rivers. He found 
nuts and plums and very good sweet grapes and mulberries 
to eat, and plenty of grass and wild flax and sumach. The 
Spaniards held a council and resolved to go back to Mexico, 
for they feared trying 
to winter in the country 
so far from the rest of 
the army. So Coronado 
raised a great cross, and 
at the foot of it he made 
some letters with a chisel, 
which said that Fran- 
cisco Vasquez de Coro- 
nado, general of the 
army, had arrived there. 
The Spaniards then 
marched away, in the month of August, 1541, almost four hun- 
dred years ago, and left the land of Quivira, with its fat, black 
soil, its beautiful rivulets and springs and rivers, its great 
prairies of grass and its nuts, plums, good sweet grapes and 
mulberries, its queer cows with humped backs and its 
Indians living in grass huts and eating raw buffalo meat. 
And no one has yet found the great cross the Spaniards 
raised with the name of Coronado upon it. Nor has any 
one yet found the tree covered with golden bells under which 
Tatarrax, the great king of Quivira, sleeps, lulled by the 
music of the bells. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Are you sorry that Coronado and his army did not find the seven cities 

of Cibola, as Fray Marcos had described them? Why? 

2. Are the people whom you know as ready to believe big stories as were 

Coronado and his army? Account for any difference. 

3. Do you know any person who has seen the buffalo roaming over our 

Nebraska plains? If so, tell what you have heard him say about them. 

4. What are the chief differences between the land of Quivira as described 

by Coronado and the part of Nebraska in which you live? 



Quivira Tomahawks. {From photograph 
by A. E. Sheldon.) 



DON DIEGO DE PENALOSA 

OUT of the musty old Spanish documents of two hundred 
years ago comes to us the strange story of Don Diego 
de Penalosa and his wonderful expedition across the plains 
to the kingdom of Quivira. It was in the year 1660, so runs 
the tale, that Don Diego came to Santa Fe to be governor 
and captain general of New Mexico. He drove back the 
fierce Apaches who raided the peaceful Pueblos along the 
Rio Grande, but his heart was restless and unsatisfied. He 
longed to make a great name for himself as did Cortez in 
Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. It was a hundred and twenty 
years since Coronado marched to Quivira and found there 
nothing but straw houses and naked savages. Still the old 
story of a kingdom full of gold and silver beyond the great 
plains persisted. Still the mystery of the great unknown 
region in the north stirred the Spanish love of conquest. 

It was on March 6, 1662, that Don Diego de Penalosa left 
the province of New Mexico to find and conquer this fabled 
land of riches. With him there marched eighty Spanish 
knights and a thousand Indian allies, while six cannon, eight 
hundred horses, three hundred mules and thirty-six wagons 
bore their baggage. 

Like Coronado, Penalosa marched north two hundred 
leagues, nearly seven hundred miles. On his way he found 
the great Indian nation of the Escanzaques with 3,000 
warriors starting for war with the people of Quivira. These 
joined the Spaniards. Together they traveled northeast un- 
til they came to a broad river flowing east. They followed 
its southern bank for a day, when the river made a great bend 
and flowed from the north. Signal fires blazed from the 
hills telling that their approach was seen. They kept on 
until they saw another fine river of clear water flowing from 

6 



DON DIEGO DE PENALOSA 



the north to join the one along whose banks they marched. 
Westward of this was a great city in a vast level plain. 
There were thousands of houses, some two, some three, some 
four stories high, well built of hard wood resembling walnut. 
The city extended for leagues westward along the plain to 
where another clear flowing stream came from the north to 
join the broad river along which they marched. 

Seventy chiefs came from this city to greet Penalosa, 
bringing rich presents of fur robes, pumpkins, corn and beans 
and fresh fish for food. A great council was held and peace 
proposed. 

That night the warriors of the Escanzaque tribe stole away 
from the Spanish camp and raided the city of Quivira, kill- 
ing, plundering, and burning. In the morning it was in 
ashes and thousands of its peaceful people dead or dying. 
Among its blackened ruins the Spanish commander sought in 
vain for chiefs who met him in friendly council the day be- 
fore. The great city was destroyed never to be rebu.lt and 
its few survivors scattered never to return. On June 11, 
1662, Don Diego de Penalosa with his great train marched 
sadly back to the Rio 
Grande there to relate 
the destruction of the 
great city of Quivira. 

A Nebraska author, 
Judge Savage, of Oma- 
ha, has traced the route 
of Penalosa upon the 
map, has measured the 
miles marched from 
Santa Fe and found that 
Penalosa reached the 
Platte near Louisville. 
He believes that Penalosa marched one day west to the 
site of Ashland where the Platte makes a bend and flows 
from the north, that the Elkhorn was the first river 




A Spanish Stirrup Found in Nebraska. 
{From photograph collection of A . E. Sheldon.) 



8 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

flowing from the north to join the Platte and the Loup 
the second river, and that between the Loup and the 
Elkhorn rivers not far from the present town of Columbus 
was the city of Quivira destroyed by the Escanzaques, who 
were the Kanzas tribe. The numerous sites between the 
Loup and Elkhorn rivers where fragments of pottery and 
other Indian relics are found to-day are remains of the great 
city of Quivira destroyed two hundred and fifty years ago. 

The legend of Penalosa is too wonderful to be true. It 
is now known to be a fiction. There was a Governor Don 
Diego de Penalosa of New Mexico but no such army as re- 
lated was led by him across the plains and there certainly was 
no great city of Quivira with houses three and four stories 
high covering the plain between the Loup and Elkhorn 
rivers. We must part with Penalosa 's expedition as an 
historical event, but bid it welcome and give it place in the 
realm of romance with other wonder stories of the time when 
people knew but very little of the land where we now live 
and used their imagination instead of their eyes in describing 
it. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why were wonderful stories about this country so long believed which 

have since been found to be untrue? 

2. Can you tell how to write an untrue story so that all the people shall 

always believe it? 



BARON LA HONTAN AND MATHIEU SAGEAN 

NEBRASKA remained an unknown land to white men 
for many years after Coronado marched back to the 
valley of the Rio Grande. The earliest Frenchmen who 
explored the Mississippi Valley did not reach this country. 
They heard of it from afar by report of the Indians living 
near the mouth of the Missouri. Far to the north and west 
stretched the land and the rivers and tribes, they said. No 
one knew how far. 

This unknown land where Nebraska now is became a 
fine field for romantic writers. Two of them, Baron La Hon- 
tan and Mathieu Sagean, deserve mention for their books 
were for many years taken as true narratives of travels in this 
region. 

Baron La Hontan was a soldier who came from France to 
Canada. In his book, printed at The Hague in 1704, he tells 
of a long journey made with companions in a canoe west of 
the Mississippi. He tells of a tribe which he calls Essanapes, 
who worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars. Beyond 
the Essanapes lived the Gnascitares, who lived on the shore 
of a great lake. Upon this lake were canoes rowed by 200 
oarsmen. They had buildings three stories high and fought 
battles with the Spaniards in New Mexico. The great king 
of this country lived in a royal palace waited upon by hun- 
dreds of servants. To make this romantic story seem true 
La Hontan 's book has a map of the region where are now 
Nebraska and South Dakota. He gives pictures of the 
Indians who lived there and many words from their lan- 
guages. None of these had any existence except in his 
imagination. 

Mathieu Sagean 's story was written by another man. It 
tells that Sagean was born in the isle of Montreal in Canada, 

9 



10 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

that his father and mother were faithful members of the 
Roman Cathohc Church, that he could read a httle but not 
write, and that twenty years before he told his story he left 
Montreal in a bark canoe for the lakes and rivers of the great 
West. With a party of eleven Frenchmen and several 
Indians he journeyed west of the Mississippi until he came 
to the country of the Acaanibas, a great nation occupying a 
region six hundred miles long. There he found cities with 
forts and a king who claimed to be a descendant of Monte- 
zuma who went clothed every day in a beautiful robe of 



La Hontan's Map of the Nebraska Region 

ermine. In front of the king 's palace were great idols many 
feet high. Every morning the king and his people wor- 
shiped before these idols, chanting songs from daybreak to the 
rising of the sun. The king's palace was three stories high 
and built of blocks of solid gold. He had 100,000 soldiers, 
three -fourths of them horsemen, who camped around the 
city. The women were as white and beautiful as those of 
Europe. The people carried on commerce with another 
people so far to the west that a journey there required six 
months of travel. Sagean saw a caravan of three thousand 
cattle loaded with gold and rich furs start on its journey. 
These stories of La Hontan and Sagean are not history. 



BARON LA HONTAN AND MATHIEU SAGEAN 11 

They are wonder stories of imaginary countries supposed to 
have been located in the Nebraska region. They show how 
Uttle was really known of our country at the time these 
stories were printed and believed. 



QUESTIONS 

1 . What things in these stories seem now to be true? 

2. What things seem untrue? 

3. When a story is partly truth and partly falsehood, how can you separate 

one from the other? 



THE SPANISH CARAVAN 

ONE of the oldest stories of white men on the Nebraska- 
Kansas plains is that known as the story of the Spanish 
Caravan. This story has always been wrapped in mystery. 
The early French writers on the Missouri country tell it in 
different forms. It has been handed down in various tribes 
of Missouri and Nebraska Indians. The Spanish histories 
of New Mexico do not mention it, but the great American- 
Spanish scholar, Adolf T. Bandelier, says he found record of 
it in the archives of the Franciscan monks and retells it in his 
book ^^The Gilded Man." There is great variation in the 
versions of* the Spanish Caravan story, but they agree in the 
main features, which are these: 

In the year 1720, a Spanish army marched out of Santa 
Fe to conquer the Missouri valley country. There were 
several hundred armed men besides women, children, a 
Franciscan monk and a great number of horses and cattle. 
Comanche Indians went along as guides and allies. Their 
plan was to conquer the Missourias, the Otoes, the Pawnees, 
and other Indians living near the Missouri River and to col- 
onize the country for Spain. Somewhere in the region of 
the Republican or Kansas River the Spanish Caravan was 
attacked by the united nations whom they came to destroy. 
All of the Spaniards were killed except the Franciscan monk 
who was captured and held prisoner. He afterward escaped 
to the French forts near St. Louis where he told the story of 
his comrades' fate. 

Some of the stories of the Caravan say that the Spanish 
commander intended to get the help of the Osage tribe, which 
was at war with the Missourias and Otoes. By mistake he 
reached first a village of the Missourias, whom he thought to 
be Osages. He told them of his plan to conquer the Mis- 

12 



THE SPANISH CARAVAN 



13 



souria tribe, to make their women and children slaves and to 
settle in their country. The Missouria chief understood the 
mistake. He thanked the Spaniards and told them he would 
join the war. Great feasts followed. The Missouria chief 
sent messengers to all the friends of the Missouria tribe. 
Over two thousand warriors came. After a night of feasting 
the Indians fell upon the Spaniards just at daybreak and in 
a few minutes killed all except the monk. All the Spanish 
horses were captured. As the Indians did not then know 
how to use horses, they made the Franciscan mount every 
day and show them how to ride. While the Indians were 
trying to imitate him, he mounted the best horse and rode 
away into the wilderness, finally reaching the French forts. 

Afterwards, says one of the French chroniclers, the 
Missouri River Indians came to the French forts with the 
sacred vestments and chalices of the church which they had 
taken from the friar. 

Other accounts tell about the plunder of the Spanish camp, 
the rich garments, the books, and a map 
which was seen in the camps of the Ne- 
braska Indians in the years that followed. 
Charlevoix, a noted Jesuit father who trav- 
eled in this region and wrote an account of 
it, tells the story of the Spanish Caravan 
and says that he bought the spurs which 
the Spanish monk wore when he escaped 
from the Indians to the French. 

At a great council held by the French 
commander Bourgmont with the Indians 
of this region in 1724 one of the chiefs 
boasted how the Missourias, Otoes and 
Pawnees had entirely destroyed the great 
Spanish army which had come to con- 
quer the Missouri River country. 

These are some of the stories of the Spanish Caravan, 
wrapped partly in mystery and dispute, but with a core of 




A Spanish Sword 
AND A Basket 
HiLTED Cavalry 
Saber Found in 
Nebraska. {From 
photograph collec- 
tion of A. E. Shel- 
don.) 



14 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

agreement and truth. The truth is that an attempt was 
made by the Spaniards at Santa Fe to conquer and settle the 
rich land of Nebraska and Kansas, which had been discov- 
ered by Coronado nearly two centuries before ; and that their 
expedition was defeated by the Nebraska Indians. 

We know that the Indians of the Nebraska country kept 
the Spanish settlements in New Mexico in fear for many 
years. And in the year 1824, a hundred years after the time 
of the Spanish Caravan, the city of Santa Fe sent an em- 
bassy to Fort Atkinson, in our state, to make peace with the 
Pawnees and bring to an end the raiding of the Rio Grande 
valley by their war parties. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What reasons are there for thinking this story of the Spanish Caravan 

not wholly a myth? 

2. Is a tale apt to grow larger or smaller when retold a number of times? 

Why? 



THE MALLET BROTHERS 

IT was almost two hundred years after Coronado and his 
thirty Spanish horsemen rode away from the valley of 
the Rio Grande to the kingdom of Quivira, and then rode 
back again, before we have a sure record of any other white 
men in this region. 

This time Frenchmen came. They crossed the entire 
state of Nebraska, from northeast to southwest, and wrote 
the story of their travels in French. This story, which 
has only recently been translated into English, is the 
first certain account we have of the land that is now 
Nebraska. 

The men who made this journey were Pierre Mallet and 
Paul Mallet, brothers, and with them were six other French- 
men. All of these except one were from Canada. They 
started from the French settlements in Illinois, not far from 
where St. Louis now is. In their story they say that they 
found it was 100 leagues up the Missouri River to the villages 
of the Missouri Indians. From there it was 80 leagues to the 
Kanzes Indians who lived not far from where Kansas City 
now is. From the Kanzes Indians to the Octotatoes or 
Otoes, who lived at the mouth of the Platte, was 100 leagues. 
From the Otoe village to the river of the Panimahas, where 
they found the Indian tribe of that name, it was 60 leagues 
farther up the Missouri. The earliest explorers called the 
Skidi Pawnees, Panimahas. This fact together with the 
distance given from the mouth of the Platte to the Pani- 
maha River makes it probable that these first explorers 
of Nebraska found the Panimaha Indians in what is now 
Dakota County. 

From this place the Mallet brothers and their company 
set out on May 29, 1739, for the city of Santa Fe. They had 

15 



16 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




The Platte River. {From photograph hy 
A. E. Sheldon.) 



with them a band of horses laden with goods to trade with 
the Spaniards and Indians of the Rio Grande region. In the 
two hundred years since Coronado had crossed the plains 
the Spanish had settled in New Mexico and built 
cities, chief among them Santa Fe. So little was then known 

about the great plains 
country that all the other 
Frenchmen who had tried 
to reach Santa Fe had 
gone up the Missouri 
River into the Dakotas. 
The Mallet brothers, up- 
on the advice of some 
Indians, took a different 
direction and set out 
southwest from the Pan- 
imaha Indian villages. 
June 2d they reached a river which they named the 
Platte, and, seeing that it took a direction not much different 
from the one they had in mind, they followed it, going up its 
left bank seventy leagues. Here they found that it made 
a fork with the river of the Padoucas. On June 13th they 
crossed to the right bank of the river they were following, and, 
traveling over a tongue of land, they camped on the 14th on 
the south bank of the river of the hills which here falls into 
the Platte. From this point they traveled south three days 
across high plains, during which time they found no wood, 
not even for fire. These high plains they said extended as 
far as the mountains near Santa Fe. After crossing sev- 
eral smaller streams they reached the Arkansas River 
on June 20th and lost seven horses loaded with goods 
in getting over the river. On July 22d they arrived at 
Santa Fe, having traveled 962 leagues from the Panimaha 
villages. 

We have only a very short story of their travels, but it is 
full of first things. They named the Platte River. They 



THE MALLET BROTHERS 17 

were no doubt the first white men to see the forks of the 
Platte. They were the first white men to travel over the 
entire length of Nebraska and the first traders to bring the 
Missouri valley and the mountains together. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Trace on a map of Nebraska the route these men traveled. 

2. Did they take the shortest route from St. Louis to Santa Fe? 

3. Is any river or town or county in Nebraska called Mallet? Has any 

monument been erected to these men? How do you account for this? 



BLACKBIRD 

(Wazhinga-sah-ba) 

THE first Nebraska Indian whose name we know is 
Blackbird. He was head chief of the Omaha tribe and 
lived more than one hundred years ago in the Omaha coun- 
try, which then extended on both sides of the Missouri River 
from Bow River in Cedar County to Papillion Creek in Sarpy 
County. 

Blackbird died about the year 1800, before there were any 
white settlements in Nebraska. He left behind him a fame 
so fierce and cruel among the Indians that it endures to this 
day. During Blackbird 's life Nebraska belonged to France 
and Spain and French and Spanish traders came up the river 
to deal with the Indians for furs. Blackbird was one of the 
first Indian chiefs on the Missouri to do business with the 
white traders. He was very shrewd in his dealing. When 
a trader came to his village he had him bring all his goods 
into the chief 's lodge and spread them out. Blackbird then 
selected the things he wished, — blankets, tobacco, whisky, 
powder, bullets, beads and red paint, — and laid them to one 
side, not offering any pay for them. Then, calling his herald, 
he ordered him to climb to the top of the lodge and summon 
all the tribe to bring in their furs and trade with the white 
man. In a few minutes the lodge would be crowded with 
Indians bearing beaver, buffalo, otter and other skins. No 
one was allowed to dispute the prices fixed by the white 
trader, who was careful to put them high enough to pay five 
times over for all the goods taken by the chief. 

Thus Blackbird and the traders grew rich together, but 
his people grew poor and began to complain. A wicked 
trader noticed this and gave Blackbird a secret by which he 

18 



BLACKBIRD 19 

could maintain his power. He taught him the use of arsenic 
and gave him a large supply of that deadly poison. After 
that the terror of Blackbird and his mysterious power grew 
in the tribe. He became a prophet as well as a chief. When 
anyone opposed him Blackbird foretold his death within a 
certain time and within that time a sudden and violent dis- 
ease carried the victim off in great agony. Before long all 
his rivals disappeared and the people agreed to everything 
Blackbird washed. 

Blackbird was also a great warrior. When a boy he was 
captured by the Sioux, but escaped and fought them after- 
ward until they feared his name. He led his warriors against 
the Pawnees and burned one of their large towns. He took 
scalps from the Otoes and from the Kanzas tribes. To his 
ability as a fighter he added the mysterious art of ^^ making 
medicine" which would overcome his enemies. Once when 
following the trail of a hostile war party across the prairies he 
fired his rifle often into the hoofprints of their horses, telling 
his bajid it would cripple them so that they would be over- 
taken. He did overtake and kill them all and his tribe 
looked upon the fact as proof of the wonderful effect of his 
^'medicine." 

The Ponca Indians lived at the mouth of the Niobrara 
River, in what is now Boyd and Knox counties, and were 
neighbors of the Omahas. The two tribes were related and 
spoke languages much alike. A party of Ponca young men 
made a raid on the Omahas and stole a number of horses and 
women. Blackbird gathered all his fighting men and started 
to '^eat up the Poncas." He drove them into a rude fort 
made by throwing up a wall of dirt. The Omahas greatly 
outnumbered the Poncas and were about to kill them all. 
The Poncas sent a herald carrying a peace pipe. Blackbird 
shot him down. Another herald was treated in the same 
way. Then the head chief of the Poncas sent his daughter, 
a young girl, in her finest Indian suit of white buckskin, with 
the peace pipe. Blackbird relented, took the pipe from the 



20 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

girl's hand, smoked it and there was peace between the 
tribes. 

The Ponca maiden became the favorite wife of Blackbird. 
She had great influence over him, but in one of his violent 
fits of anger he drew a knife and struck her dead. When he 
knew what he had done his rage ended in violent grief. He 
covered his head with a buffalo robe and sat down by the 
dead body, refusing to eat or sleep. He answered no one. 
The tribe feared that he would starve to death. One of them 
brought a child and, laying it on the ground, put Blackbird 's 
foot upon its neck. This touched the chief's heart. He 
threw off his buffalo robe, forgot his deep sorrow and resumed 
his duties. 

At last an enemy came against the Omahas which not 
even Blackbird with all his medicine and mystery could 
withstand. This was the smallpox, the white man 's disease 
which the Indians had never known. It came among them 
like a curse. They could not understand how it traveled 
from lodge to lodge and from village to village. The fever 
and the fearful blotches drove them wild. Some of them 
left their villages and rushed out on the prairies to die alone. 
Others set fire to their houses and killed their wives and 
children. Two thirds of the Omaha tribe perished and it 
never after recovered its old strength and power. 

Blackbird, the great chief, was finally stricken. His 
friends gathered about his dying bed to hear his last word. 
He ordered them to bury him on the top of the great hill 
which rose several hundred feet above the Missouri and from 
which one could see up and down the river for thirty miles. 
Here the Indians watched for the coming of the white traders, 
and the latter as they toiled against the current saw its 
summit with joy, for they knew great springs of cold water 
gushed from the sandstone rock at the foot of the hill and 
there were rest and food and friendship for the white man in 
the lodges of the Omaha village. On the top of this hill 
Blackbird desired to be buried, seated on his favorite horse 



BLACKBIRD 



21 



so that his spirit might overlook the entire Omaha country 
and first see the boats of the white men as they came up the 
river. 

The dying chief's command was carried out. The horse 
was led to the summit of the hill with the dead chief firmly 
fastened upon his back. Then the sod and dirt were piled 
about them in a great mound until both were buried from 
sight. A pole was set in the mound and upon it were hung 



-■--£ 




-S^^^^^^K^^^^-^^'^'JS^M^^^, 


^^^_^ 







Blackbird Hill. 



(From Thwaites^s ''Early Western Travels.'^ Arthur H. 
Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 



scalps Blackbird had taken in battle. From time to time 
food for the spirit of the dead was placed upon the mound by 
the few Omahas who survived the smallpox scourge of 1800. 
When Lewis and Clark came up the river in 1804 the 
mound and pole were yet there. All the other early writers 
mention the mound. It was the great landmark of the 
Nebraska shore. In 1832 George Catlin, the painter and 
traveler who spent years among the western Indians paint- 
ing their pictures and learning their life, came down the 



22 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Pictured Rocks near Blackbird Hill 
{From photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



Missouri and climbed up on Blackbird Hill. There was a 
gopher hole in the side of the mound. He dug into it and a 
skull dropped down. He quickly wrapped it in a blanket 

and carried it to Wash- 
ington where it was 
placed in the Snciithson- 
ian Museum. 

These are some of the 
stories told about Black- 
bird by the old Indians 
and early white men; 
told around the camp- 
fires in the long cold 
winter nights or in the 
circle of story tellers 
which sits on hot July days beneath the shade of a great 
tree in the Omaha country. Stories told in this way 
are often changed in the telling. We cannot say how far 
they are changed, but whether much or Httle, they seemed 
to be all that we were ever likely to know of the life of the 
first noted Nebraska Indian. 

In the year 1914, however, there was given to the 
world new and important information about Blackbird. 
In Seville, Spain, an American historian, Roscoe R. Hill, 
found an original diary kept in Nebraska by Jean Baptiste 
Truteau in the years 1794 and 1795. Truteau was a French 
fur trader who left St. Louis, June 7, 1794. He was stopped 
on his way by Chief Blackbird who robbed him of most 
of his goods. This is what he says of Blackbird: 

''This grand chief of the Mahas is the most cunning, 
the most wily, and the greatest rascal of all the nations 
which Hve on the Missouri. He is feared and respected 
and in great renown with the stronger nations who do not 
dare oppose him openly nor agitate against his will. He 
allows no movement, either in war or in hunting, to which 
he has not given his consent. His name is quoted in all 



BLACKBIRD 23 

the assemblies and councils held in his absence in places 
the most remote where people gather. If some one of his 
people acquire beautiful goods or fine horses which he 
seems to desire, they hasten to give them to him. He 
never travels on foot; he is always mounted on one of the 
most beautiful horses which is in his village. He has slaves 
to wait upon him, or rather one would say, they are all 
his slaves; for if he wishes to sleep he has one or two attend- 
ants who softly rub his legs and his feet while he slumbers. 
If his ordinary servants are absent, the most eminent 
and the bravest of his tribe perform equally this office. 

"If it is necessary to waken him it must be done with 
caution, taking great care not to call in his ear nor to rub 
his hand. In sleep they wave feathers hghtly over his 
face or softly tickle certain parts of his body. In a word, 
he is a man who by his spirit and his strategems is elevated 
to such a high place of authority among the nations that 
there is no other example hke him among all the other 
savage people of the continent. He is able to do and to 
cause to have done good or ill whenever it pleases him. For 
it is not only his deeds in war which have given him so 
much power, as he has always been inclined to peace, 
but by the fear which his people and his neighbors have 
of certain poisons which he uses, so they say, to cause 
those to die who displease him.'' 

Blackbird Hill stands close by the side of the great river 
to-day as it did a hundred years ago. Great springs gush 
from the sandstone chffs at its base. Upon the walls of these 
cliffs are deeply cut pictures of wild animals and strange 
Indian signs mingled with the names of early explorers. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Was Blackbird a good chief? \7hy? 

2. Why was the smallpox more deadly to the Indians than to white men? 

3. Do you think the Omaha Indians obeyed Blackbird's dying request? 



LEWIS AND CLARK 

IN the year 1803, Nebraska was sold by Napoleon Bona- 
parte, Emperor of France, to Thomas Jefferson, President 
of the United States. It was sold as part of the great coun- 
try between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, 




Lewis and Clark 



all of which was then called Louisiana and owned by France. 
The price paid was $15,000,000, which was about three cents 
an acre. 

As soon as the United States had bought this country, 
President Jefferson sent Captain Meriwether Lewis and 
Captain William Clark with forty-five other men to explore 
it. They were to go up the Missouri River as far as they 
could, then cross the Rocky Mountains and reach the Pacific 
Ocean. They were to make maps, bring back reports of the 

24 



LEWIS AND CLARK 25 

land and make friends with the tribes with which they came 
in contact. It was a wild land of which white men knew 
very little. Indians and wild animals had their homes there. 
No one knew the way across the mountains to the Pacific. 

Lewis and Clark started from Wood River near the 
mouth of the Missouri on May 14, 1804. They had one 
large boat with a sail and twenty-two oars, and two smaller 
boats with oars only. They had powder, lead, tools and trink- 
ets to trade with the Indians. They had two horses for their 
hunters to ride to help them carry the game which they killed. 

The Lewis and Clark party made about fifteen miles a 
day up the Missouri River. Part of the time they used the 
sail and part of the time the oars and a great part of the time 
they pulled the boats with long ropes which the men held 
while they walked along the shore. It was two months be- 
fore they reached Nebraska, at the mouth of the Nemaha 
River, not far from the village of Rulo, in Richardson County. 
Here they found Indians, wild plums, cherries and grapes. 

On July 15th they were at the mouth of the little Nemaha 
River and on July 20th they were at the mouth of the Weep- 
ing Water in Cass County, where they killed a large yellow 
wolf. The next day they reached the mouth of the Platte 
River and camped a little way above it. They sent out 
runners to the village of the Otoes near the place where the 
Elkhorn flows into the Platte. 

After resting and repairing their boats they went on past 
the site of Omaha and on July 30th reached a high bluff near 
the present town of Fort Calhoun in Washington County. 
Here they camped. The hunters brought in deer, wild 
turkeys and geese. Catfish were caught in the river and the 
men tamed a beaver. Here on August 3d they held the first 
council ever held by the United States with the Nebraska 
Indians. Fourteen Otoe and Missouri Indians came to the 
council. The principal chiefs were Little Thief, Big Horse 
and White Horse. They promised to keep peace with the 
United States and were given medals and presents of paint, 



26 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



powder and cloth. They gave the white men presents of 
watermelons. The place where this council was held was 
named Council-bluff and is now a part of the town of Fort 
Calhoun. A hundred years after this a large rock was placed 
on the schoolhouse grounds in memory of this first council 
held with the Indians west of the Mississippi River. 

On August 11th the party reached Blackbird Hill in 
Thurston County, where it found the grave of the great 



1 




i 


^- -'I'M 






^ 


■S.. 




r 

kjM 


'jm 


^ 





The Lewis and Clark Monument at Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. {From 
photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 

Omaha chief who died of smallpox about four years before. 
On August 16th the party was at the mouth of Omaha 
Creek in Dakota County. Here the men made a net of wil- 
lows and w^ith it pulled out over eleven hundred fish from 
a beaver pond in the creek. 

Sergeant Charles Floyd, a member of the party, died on 
August 20th and was buried on a high bluff on the Iowa side 
of the river near Sioux City. This is called Floyd's Bluff 



LEWIS AND CLARK 27 

to this day. It is a landmark which may be seen for many 
miles across the Missouri valley in Nebraska. 

On the 28th of August they camped at Calumet Bluff in 
Cedar County, where they held a great council with the 
Sioux Indians under a large oak tree. First the pipe of peace 
was smoked. Then Chief Shake Hand said: ^'I see before 
me my father's two sons. You see me and the rest of our 
chiefs. We are very poor. We have no powder nor ball nor 
knives and our women and children at the village have no 
clothes. I went formerly to the English and they gave me 
a medal and some clothes. When I went to the Spanish 
they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep it from my skin ; 
but now you give me a medal and clothes. Still we are poor 
and I wish, brothers, you would give us something for our 
squaws." Then White Crane and Struck-by-the-Pawnee 
spoke, approving what the old chief had said, and asked for 
some of the great father's milk, which was their name for 
whisky. Presents were given these Sioux and peace was 
made between them and the United States. 

On September 4th Lewis and Clark camped just above the 
mouth of the Niobrara River. Here for the first time they 
met the Ponca Indians, who had long made their home in this 
part of Nebraska. A little beyond, they saw great herds of 
buffalo and also elk, deer and villages of prairie dogs. Soon 
after they crossed the Nebraska line into South Dakota. 

Two years later, in September, 1806, Lewis and Clark 
came back from the Pacific Ocean to Nebraska. They had 
suffered great hardships on the journey. Many times they 
had nearly lost their lives from hunger and thirst, from war- 
like Indians and wild animals, from rocks in the rivers and 
from pathless woods and mountains. But they had lived 
through them all and carried the flag of the United States 
for the first time across the mountains and plains to the great 
ocean on the other side. And now they came back with 
honor and glory for they had found a way to the Pacific Ocean 
and they had written the story of their travels in a book 



28 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



which they kept every day, teUing all about the tribes of 
Indians they had seen and the rivers and mountains and the 
land they had crossed. They made a path for white men 

into the great West and 
after them came hunters, 
trappers, traders and em- 
igrants until the West 
was explored and settled. 
Captain Clark for 
many years lived at St. 
Louis and was governor 
of the great West which 
he explored. He was tall, 
very strongly built, with 
piercing gray eyes and red 
hair. His appearance made a deep impression on the Indians, 
who had never before seen a red-haired man. The Omaha 
Indians to this day call St. Louis the town of red-haired men. 
Here the Indians came to hold councils with him. Here he 
met the traders, trappers and early emigrants, and here he 
died in September, 1838, beloved by all who knew him. 

Captain Lewis lived only three years after the return of 
the expedition, dying in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1809. 

The names of Lewis and Clark are forever hnked together 
in the history of the West. 




The Clark Monument at St. Louis. 
{From photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



QUESTIONS 

1. With what tribes of Nebraska Indians did Lewis and Clark meet? 

2. Show on the map the location of each place mentioned in this story. 

3. Why did Chief Shake Hand say his people were very poor? 

4. Which did more for Nebraska, the Mallet Brothers or Lewis and Clark? 

5. How much of Nebraska did Lewis and Clark explore? 

6. What do the pictures of these two men tell you of their characters? 



HOW THE SPANISH FLAG CAME DOWN 

ON July 15, 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike with 
twenty-two men left St. Louis on an expedition to 
explore the plains and find a road to Santa Fe. After a long 
march across Missouri and Kansas he arrived, September 
25th, in the Republican valley near the border of Nebraska. 
Here he found the great village of the Pawnee republic num- 
bering nearly two thousand people. He also found that a 
party of three hundred Spanish cavalry from Santa Fe had 
visited the village three or four weeks before. The Spanish 
commander had given the Pawnees presents, had promised 
to open a road for trade and had left with them a Spanish 
flag, which was flying from a pole in front of the Pawnee 
chief's lodge. 

Lieutenant Pike held a grand council with the Pawnees 
on September 29th, and told them that they must haul down 
the Spanish flag and in its place raise the Stars and Stripes, for 
their land no longer belonged to Spain but was a part of the 
United States. The chiefs were silent, for the Spaniards had 
come with a great force on horseback bringing many presents, 
while the American lieutenant had only twenty-two men on 
foot. All around were hundreds of Pawnee warriors ready 
for battle. The young American lieutenant, pointing at the 
Spanish flag, said that the Pawnee nation could not have two 
fathers, they must either be the children of the Spanish king 
or acknowledge their American father. 

After a long silence an old Indian rose, went to the door 
of the lodge, took down the Spanish flag, brought it to Lieu- 
tenant Pike and laid it at his feet. He then took the Ameri- 
can flag and raised it on the staff where the Spanish flag had 
floated. 

It is believed by some that the place where this took place 

29 



30 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

is about eight miles southeast of Hardy, Nebraska, just 
across the Nebraska line in Kansas. Here is the site of a 
large Pawnee village, stretching for several miles along the 
banks of the Republican River, and here in September, 1906, 
the state of Kansas raised a flag and erected a monument to 
mark the spot where, one hundred years before, the Spanish 
flag came down and the Stars and Stripes were raised. 

There are others who believe that the Spanish flag came 
down in what is now Nebraska, and that the site of an 
ancient Pawnee village some miles farther up the Republican 
river is the place where Lieutenant Pike and his little com- 
pany of soldiers saw the American flag raised over the Pawnee 
nation. 

Whether the spot where the Spanish flag came down is in 
Kansas or in Nebraska is not important. The Spanish flag 
came down forever and in its place rose the Stars and Stripes. 
This brave deed of the young lieutenant and his men deserves 
to be honored in history. 



QUESTIONS 

1. When did the Stars and Stripes become the flag of this nation? 

2. What was especially brave in Lieutenant Pike's action here? 

3. Why might not the Spanish flag continue to wave over the Pawnee village? 



JOHN COLTER'S ESCAPE 



NEBRASKA, when first made on the map, included all the 
country from the present Nebraska-Kansas line north 
to Canada. In this first Nebraska of the early days, in the 
part that is now Montana, there occurred the remarkable 
escape of John Colter. 

John Colter was a trapper who crossed the continent to 
the Pacific Ocean with Lewis and Clark. On their way back, 
in 1806, Colter saw so many signs of beaver on the head- 
waters of the Missouri that he got leave of Captain Lewis to 
stay there and trap. This was in the heart of the country 
of the terrible Blackfoot Indians. Captain Lewis had killed 
a Blackfoot warrior who was trying to steal horses and from 
that time the tribe hated white men and killed them without 
mercy. 

Colter knew all this, but he loved to trap and with another 
hunter named Potts he plunged into the wilds of the best 
beaver streams of the 
Blackfoot hunting 
grounds. The two men 
knew the great risk they 
ran and they knew also 
the ways of the Indians. 
They set their traps at 
night, took them up 
early in the morning, 
and hid during the day. 

Early one morning 
they were softly pad- 
dling up a small creek 
in their canoe to take in some traps when they heard a 
trampling on the bank. Colter said, ''Indians," and wanted 

31 





1 


mE 




-"*• M 


M 


i 


A' 


^},^i%^^ 






\ 



Blackfoot \\'arriors. (From Thwaites' 

"Early Western Travels.^' Arthur H. 

Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 



32 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

to go back. Potts gaid, ^'Buffalo," and kept on. A few 
more strokes of the paddle and they were surrounded on 
both shores by hundreds of Blackfoot warriors who made 
signs to the trappers to come to them. Since they could not 
escape, Colter turned the canoe toward shore. As they came 
to land an Indian seized Potts' rifle, but Colter, who was a 
very strong man, wrested it from him and handed it to Potts. 
The latter killed an Indian with it, but was himself shot full 
of arrows. 

The Indians now took Colter, stripped him, and began to 
talk about how they would kill him. At first they were go- 
ing to put him up as a mark to be shot at, but the chief, 
desiring to have greater sport, asked Colter if he could run 
fast. Colter understood enough of their language to tell him 
that he was a very poor runner, although he was one of the 
swiftest runners among the hunters. Then the chief took him 
out on the prairie a few hundred yards and turned him loose 
to run for his life. The Indians gave their war-whoop and 
started after him. Colter ran straight across an open plain 
toward the Jefferson River six miles away. The plain was 
covered with cactus, and at every jump the bare feet of the 
naked man were filled with cactus thorns. On Colter ran, 
swifter than he had ever before run in his life, with those hun- 
dreds of Blackfoot warriors after him. He ran nearly half 
way across the plain before he dared to look back over his 
shoulder. He saw that he had far outrun all the Indians 
except one who carried a spear and was not more than a hun- 
dred yards behind him. 

A faint hope now rose in Colter's heart, but he had run so 
hard that blood gushed from his nose and covered his body. 
He ran on until within a mile of the river, when he heard the 
steps of the Indian with the spear close behind him and, 
turning his head, saw he was not more than twenty yards 
away. Colter stopped suddenly, turned around and spread 
out his arms. The Indian, surprised, tried to stop also, but 
was so exhausted that he fell to the ground and broke his 



JOHN COLTER'S ESCAPE 33 

spear. Colter at once picked up the point of the spear and 
with it pinned the Indian to the earth. He then ran on while 
the other Indians came up to their dead comrade and yelled 
horribly over his body. Colter, using every moment, soon 
gained the shelter of the trees on the bank and plunged into 
the river. 

A little below was an island, at the upper end of which 
was a great raft of driftwood in the water. Colter dived 
under this raft and after some trouble got his head above the 
water between large logs which screened him from view. He 
had hardly done this when the Indians came down the river 
bank yelling like fiends. They hunted the shores, walked 
out on the raft of driftwood over Colter's head, pulling the 
logs and peering among them for hours. Once Colter thought 
they were about to set the raft on fire. Not until after dark, 
when the Indians were no longer heard, did Colter dare to 
venture from his hiding place. He swam down the river a 
long distance, then came out on the bank. He was alone in 
the wilderness, naked, without a weapon and with his feet 
torn to pieces by the sharp cactus thorns. He was hundreds 
of miles from the nearest trading post on the Yellowstone, 
in a country of hostile savages. But he was alive and fear- 
less and strong. 

A week later he reached the trading post, sunburnt and 
starving, but saved. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What knowledge of Indian ways did John Colter show? 

2. Describe the man who would be a successful trapper. 

3. What is the most striking incident of this story? 



MANUEL LISA 



MANUEL LISA was the founder of Old Nebraska. Old 
Nebraska was the Nebraska of one hundred years 
ago. It was, first of all, a narrow strip of country along the 
Missouri River where the white men came to trade with 
the Indians and where they built log cabins in which to live 

and store their goods. Back 
of this narrow strip were the 
great plains and valleys of 
Nebraska with herds of buf- 
falo, elk, deer and antelope, 
whose skins the Indians 
brought in from their summer 
and winter hunting trips. In 
the streams and lakes were 
plenty of beaver, mink and 
otter and their pelts were 
taken by the Indians and 
.£MM kr IJMM/r^^/lK. eagerly bought by the trader. 
J^V^ASjl!ff!0JW ^ ^^^ traders in Old Nebraska 

r ur ^Sir//////^u^ ///I '// came up the river from St. 

Louis in open boats. Some- 
times these boats were canoes 
hollowed out of ai great tree 
and sometimes they were made 
out of plank. These boats 
had oars and sometimes a mast and small sail. It was 
easy to go down the river in them, but to come up 
against the swift current was very hard and slow. Each 
boat was pulled up the river by a long rope called a 
cordelle, the men w^alking along the bank or splashing across 
the sand bars and shallows with the rope over their shoul- 

34 




Manuel Lisa. {Drawing 
. . Martha Turner.) 



MANUEL LISA 35 

ders. It took them fift}^ days to drag a boat from St. Louis 
to the mouth of the Platte. The trip down was made in ten 
days. 

The men who pulled these boats and those who traded 
with the Nebraska Indians in those days were nearly all 
Frenchmen, but the greatest leader among them was Manuel 
Lisa, a Spaniard. He was born in New Orleans, came to St. 
Louis when a very young man and at once began trading 
wdth Indians. When the exploring party of Lewis and Clark 
came back in 1806 from its two years' trip to the Pacific 
Ocean with news of the rich fur country it had seen, Manuel 
Lisa was the first man to act. Early in 1807 he went far up 
the Missouri River and established trading posts. The next 
year he came down to St. Louis. Every year for the next 
twelve years he made long journeys with his men and boats 
up and down the river. He carried the white man's goods 
to Indian tribes which had never dealt with traders before. 
He made friends everywhere and gathered great cargoes of 
fur which he sent down to St. Louis every summer. All the 
hardships and dangers of the frontier were nothing to him, 
helping his men to pull the boats, sleeping on the ground, 
going without food. In the twelve years he traveled over 
twenty-five thousand miles and spent three solid years on the 
Missouri River. In all Nebraska and far up the river ^'Man- 
uel" was most widely known as the great white man and 
leader. 

Trouble was brewing between the United States and 
Great Britain. The Hudson 's Bay Company wished to get 
all the furs from the Missouri River. It sent agents from its 
posts to all the tribes on the Missouri and the Mississippi 
stirring them up to attack the American settlers and making 
them presents of rifles and powder and lead. Tecumseh, the 
great Indian war chief of the west, was going from tribe to 
tribe urging all the Indians to forget their quarrels with each 
other and before it was too late to join in driving the white 
men from the country. Most of the tribes on the Mississippi 



36 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



River joined the league of Tecumseh and fought with the 
British against the United States. The tribes beyond the 
Missouri were four times as numerous as those on the Missis- 
sippi. If they had joined the British and poured their 
thousands of warriors against the white settlements it is 
likely that St. Louis would have been taken and the frontier 
driven back five hundred miles. But though every effort 




British Flag on Nebraska Rocks, 1906. 

Sheldon.) 



{From photograph hy A. E. 



was made to have them do so the Indians beyond the Mis- 
souri remained true to the United States. On the cliffs of 
Blackbird Hill deeply cut in the rock is a British flag. It 
was covered with moss when found and photographed in 
1906. It was probably cut there a hundred years ago and 
may have marked a council held between the British and the 
Omaha Indians, whose village was close by. It is the only 
place in Nebraska where the British flag is displayed. 



MANUEL LISA 37 

Manuel Lisa was given chief credit for holding the Indians 
of the west at peace with our country. He was made sub- 
agent of the United States for all the tribes above the mouth 
of the Kansas River. He built Fort Lisa on the Missouri 
River ten miles above where Omaha now stands. Under his 
care all the great tribes of the plains, the Pawnee, Sioux, 
Omaha, Otoe, Ponca, Cheyenne, Mandan, Crow and 
Arikara, kept faith with the United States. Not only did 
they remain friends, but the Nebraska Indians crossed the 
Missouri River and attacked the loways, who were helping 
the British. Fort Lisa was the great trading post for all the 
plains region. Its influence was felt as far away as the moun- 
tains. When the war ended Lisa had made a league of forty 
chiefs and was preparing to lead them the next year against 
the British and their Indian allies on the upper Mississippi. 

Manuel Lisa was the first white farmer in Nebraska. He 
had a hundred men in his employ and around each of his 
posts he had a small farm with cabins for the helpers. He 
had hundreds of horses, cattle, hogs and fowls. He brought 
to Nebraska the seed of the great squash, the lima bean, the 
potato and the turnip and gave them to the Indian tribes. 
Ever since that time these vegetables have been grown by 
the Nebraska Indians, and the great field squash, which Lisa 
said he had seen weighing 160 pounds, grown from the seed 
he brought here, has always been a favorite in the Indian 
gardens. 

There is a story of romance and sorrow connected with 
Lisa's family. When he first came to Nebraska he had a 
white wife in St. Louis. After a while he married an Omaha 
Indian girl, telhng her people he had another wife down the 
river. Among the Indians it was common for a man to have 
more than one wife and the early Indian traders very often 
married a wife in each tribe where they traded in order to 
make friends and help their business. While Lisa was gone 
to St. Louis a daughter was born to him in Nebraska. The 
Indian mother was very proud of her little girl, and when the 



38 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Aunt Manuel," First 
Known White Woman in 
Nebraska. {From photo- 
graph collection of A. E. 
Sheldon.) 



time came for Lisa to return she took her baby every day 
down to the river and watched all day long for her husband 's 
boat in order to be the first to meet him and show him their 

child. When he came the baby was 
named Rosalie. The next year a 
son was born to Lisa and his Indian 
wife. He was named Raymond. 

When Rosalie was two years old 
her father wished to take her with 
him to St. Louis to be brought up 
and to go to school among the white 
people. The mother was very un- 
willing to let her go and was wild 
with grief when the boat with the 
little girl and her father passed out 
of sight down the river. This was 
in the summer of 1817. That fall 
Lisa's first wife died, and on August 5, 1818, he was married 
in St. Louis to Mary Hempstead Keeney. She was a charm- 
ing woman, very much loved by all w^ho knew her. At this 
time the United States was about to send an exploring party 
with soldiers up the Missouri on the first steamboats ever 
used on that river. The soldiers were to winter in Nebraska. 
When Lisa knew this he planned to have his w^hite wife go 
up the river and spend the winter at Fort Lisa, helping to 
entertain the officers and making friends to secure trade, for 
Lisa was always thinking of more trade. She did so and was 
the first white woman to come into Nebraska, with the 
possible exception of Madam Lajoie in 1770. 

Lisa sent word to Fort Lisa to have his Indian wife given 
presents and told to keep away from the fort while his white 
■wife was there. Mitain, as the Indian wife was called, did so 
for a time, but at last came in with her little bo}^ Raymond. 
During Lisa's long stay in St. Louis the Indian mother 
was working one day, with other squaws, in a garden near 
the fort. The Sioux came suddenly upon them. The other 



MANUEL LISA 



39 



women ran at once. Little Raymond was strapped to his 
cradle board resting against a tree. His mother rushed 
through the Sioux, seized her baby and ran for the fort. The 
Sioux were close upon her when near the fort, so she threw 
baby, board and all, over the wall, receiving a wound and 
risking her own life to save her child. When Lisa heard her 
story he praised the mother, petted the boy and gave them 
both presents, telling the mother to go back to her people. 

The next year, 1820, Lisa prepared to go down the river 
to St. Louis. He sent for Mitain and told her that Raymond, 
who was then four years old, must go with him to be educated. 
The mother quickly seized her boy, ran to the river, sprang 
in a boat and rowed to the other side. She stayed out in the 
woods that night. In the morning she came back and gave 
the child to his father, saying that she knew it was better for 
him to learn the white man 's way. She begged Lisa to take 
her with him. She would live in any little corner that he 
would provide for her and make no trouble if only she might 
see her children now and then. Lisa would not agree to this, 
but offered her many presents if she would return to her tribe. 
The poor Indian mother broke into 
tears, saying that their marriage 
was for life, that she could not marry 
now among her own people and that 
Lisa was about to ruin her life and 
break her heart by taking both her 
children from her. Her tears and 
appeals did not move Lisa. He did 
not seem to know that an Indian 
mother loves her children even as 
does a white mother and that no 
presents can pay her for the loss of 
them. He prepared to take Ray- 
mond, when the United States officers interfered and made 
him give the child to its mother. 

Lisa went on his way down the river with his white wife. 




Rosalie Lisa Ely {From 

photograph collection of 

A. E. Sheldon.) 



40 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

He never saw Nebraska again, for he died, August 12, 1820, 
at St. Louis. He is buried in Belief ontaine Cemetery there, 
and by his side lies his wife who lived nearly fifty years after 
his death. She was a friend of the fur traders and of the 
Indians all her life and was called by everyone '^ Aunt Man- 
uel." It is the name cut on her tombstone. 

In his will Lisa left money for the education of his two 
Indian children and two thousand dollars for each of them 
when they should be of age. Raymond died while yet a 
young man. Rosalie grew to womanhood, and was well 
educated, married and lived happily with Mr. Madison Ely, 
a white man. She died at Trenton, Illinois, December 21, 
1904, leaving several children who are still living. 

The mother of Rosalie and Raymond was seen at Bellevue 
by Prince Maximilian in 1833. She wore a deep scar where 
the Sioux struck her when she saved the life of her boy. Her 
story was told to all the travelers who came up the river. 
WTien she died and where she is buried no one knows. Some- 
where an unmarked mound of Nebraska soil holds the dust 
of the Nebraska Indian woman who proved her mother love 
by sacrifice and sorrow^ 



QUESTIONS 

1. What products were shipped from Nebraska in Manuel Lisa's time? 

2. What good things did Manuel Lisa do? 

3. What things did he do that you do not like? 

4. What kind of a man did the early fur trader need to be? 

5. What do you think of the first known white woman in Nebraska as judged 

by her picture? 

6. What do you imagine Rosalie and Raymond did for a good time in those 

early Nebraska days .'' 



THE RETURN OF THE ASTORIANS 

IN the last week of March of the year 1813 seven men 
might have been seen leading an old horse down the val- 
ley of the North Platte. They were white men who had 
come all the way from the mouth of the Columbia River in 
Oregon and had walked all the way from the Snake River in 
Idaho where the Crow Indians had robbed them of their 
horses. Their one poor old horse they had got from the Snake 
Indians, trading them a pistol, a knife and an ax for him. 

The names of these men were Robert Stuart, Ramsay 
Crooks, Robert McLellan, Ben Jones, Andri Valla, Francis 
LeClerc and Joseph Miller. Almost three years before, on 
October 21, 1810, a party under Wilson Price Hunt had 
left St. Louis intending to cross the mountains and build a 
fort for the American Fur Company in Oregon. On their 
way up the Missouri River the Hunt party had the most 
remarkable keel boat race in history. This was with Manuel 
Lisa, who left St. Louis nineteen days later and wished to 
overtake them. The race was a thousand miles long and 
lasted sixty days. It was won by Lisa who overtook Hunt 
a httle beyond where Fort Pierre, South Dakota, now is. 
At the Arikara villages near the mouth of Grand River, 
Hunt left his boats, traded for horses, and set out to find 
a shorter way to Oregon than the one taken by Lewis and 
Clark. Their new route took them over very rough coun- 
try in the Black Hills and Big Horn Mountains. After 
great losses and hardships they reached the mouth of the 
Columbia River, where they built a fort which they named 
Astoria, after John Jacob Astor, of New York, the president 
of the fur company. 

From Astoria, on the 29th of June, 1812. the little party of 
seven men set out to return to the United States in order to 

41 



42 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

carry word to Mr. Astor in New York. All the summer and 
fall they had marched across the deserts and mountains. To 
avoid the fierce Blackfoot Indians they kept to the south of 
the route by which they went out. By so doing they met a 
party of Crows who stole all of their horses. The seven men 
were thus left afoot in a wild country without roads and more 
than a thousand miles from any white settlement. They 
burned their baggage to keep the Indians from getting any of 
it, and with their rifles and such things as they could carry on 
their backs began their long tramp toward the Missouri 
River. One of their number became sick and they were 
obliged to carry him for several days and then to camp and 
give him ^'Indian sweat" until he got well. 

Soon after they began to climb the Rocky Mountains and 
game became so scarce that they nearly starved. They 
fished in a mountain stream but caught no fish. For three 
days they went hungry. One of them, crazed for want of 
food, said that they must draw lots and one of them be killed 
to feed the rest. The others took away his gun, and the next 
day they killed an old buffalo, which saved their lives. A 
few days later they found a camp of Snake Indians and 
traded with them for an old horse. With this old horse to 
carry their things they kept on through the mountains 
until they found a way to the eastern slope, not far from 
where the South Pass was later found. They were the first 
white men to cross the mountains at this point and find their 
way to the valley eastward which afterward became the 
route for the Oregon and California trail. On October 26th 
they reached the upper waters of the Platte River. They did 
not know what stream it was or where it would lead them, 
but they followed it until the 2nd of November, when they 
made a winter camp where there was timber and game, and 
not far from where Casper, Wyoming, is now. In three days 
they killed forty-seven buffalo. They built a log cabin, used 
the buffalo skins to cover it, dried the buffalo meat and had 
made themselves comfortable for the winter when a band of 



THE RETURN OF THE ASTORIANS 



43 



twenty-three Arapahoes on the warpath against the Crows 
came to their cabin nearly starved. The Astorians fed them 
all night with dried buffalo meat. The next day as soon as 
the Arapahoes had left in pursuit of the Crows the Astorians 
packed their faithful old horse with what he could carry and 
hurried away from their snug cabin in the mountains, leav- 
ing all the rest to the Indians. 

It was the 13th of December when the Astorians left their 
winter quarters. The snow was two feet deep in the moun- 
tains. Their feet became sore from breaking through the 
hard crust. Their old horse had nothing to eat but willow 
twigs and cottonwood bark, but they struggled on for four- 
teen days in which time they made about 330 miles. The 
country began to change. The mountains gave place to hills 
and the hills to plains. There was no wood and the snow lay 
deep on the ground. They feared they would freeze to death 
so they went back three days' 
march (about seventy-seven 
miles) and on December 30th 
made camp again where there was 
wood and buffalo. This camp 
was in Nebraska not far from 
where Bridgeport is now. Here 
they stayed until March and 
made two large canoes to travel 
with on the river, but the North 
Platte (for it was that stream) was 
so shallow that they were obliged 
to leave their canoes after all their 
hard work in making them and 
start again on foot accompanied 
by their faithful old horse. 

So it was that on March 20, 
1813, they left their last camp 
and journeyed down the North Platte valley. They saw a 
herd of sixty-five wild horses and longed to be mounted on 




Monument TO the Astorians at 
Bellevue, Nebraska. {From 
photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



44 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

them as they galloped away. Day after day they marched 
along leading their old horse with his burden. On either 
side of the wide North Platte valley the great prairie stretched 
away covered with buffalo, but no human being was in 
sight. They passed great swamps where they saw thousands 
of wild swan, geese and ducks. They were probably in what 
is now Garden County. There were no trees and they made 
their only fires with dry refuse on the prairies. In the early 
days of April they reached a great island, about seventy 
miles long, in the Platte River. When they saw this island, 
now called Grand Island, they were for the first time sure 
that they were in the Platte River valley, for hunters had 
already brought word of this island in the Platte. Three 
days later they met an Otoe Indian who took them to his 
village. Here they met two white traders from St. Louis to 
whom they traded their old horse for a canoe, and on the 18th 
of April they floated into the Missouri River and down to St. 
Louis. 

To these seven men and their old horse belongs the honor 
of first exploring the North Platte valley and first finding a 
central route through the Rocky Mountains. They were 
real path-finders of the great West. 



QUESTIONS 

1. How did the Astorian party find its way across the deserts and mountains 

with no road and no guide? 

2. Where did the wild horses come from which they saw in the North Platte 

valley? 

3. What part of Nebraska did this party explore? 



MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITION 

IN 1819, the United States government sent an expedition 
under Major Stephen H. Long to explore the Platte River 
and the mountain region beyond. This expedition is famous 
because it brought the first steamboat to the Nebraska shores 
and placed the great American Desert on the map. The 
steamboat was named the Western Engineer, and left 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1819, for the long journey 
down the Ohio, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and 
thence up the Missouri River to the old Council Bluff of Lewis 
and Clark. The Western Engineer was well calculated to 
strike terror into the hearts of the western Indians who had 
never seen a steamboat. The bow of the boat rose in the 
form of a huge, black, scaly serpent with open mouth, from 
which poured smoke and steam when the boat was under 
way. The Ihclians who saw this boat said, ' ' White man, bad 
man, keep Great Spirit chained, build fire under him to make 
him paddle the boat." 

This serpent steamboat arrived at Fort Lisa, ten miles 
above the present site of Omaha, on September 17th. The 
party under Major Long at once began to prepare cabins for 
winter quarters. The spot they chose, with plenty of wood 
and stone near at hand for building and for fuel, may still be 
found between the high bluff and the Missouri River. 

There were twenty people in Major Long's party, some 
of them engineers, some scientists in botany, geology and 
zoology, and one artist. The fall and winter were spent in 
study of the animals, plants and rocks, in holding councils 
with the Indians, learning their language and customs, and 
in keeping record of the weather. 

There were many meetings with the Indians, and many 
very interesting speeches made. On October 4th one hun- 

45 



46 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



dred Otoes, seventy Missourias and sixty loways gave a 
dance. On October 9th seventy Pawnees did the same. On 
October 14th four hundred Omahas assembled and a great 
speech was made by their chief, Big Elk, who said, among 
other things : 

*^Here I am, my Father; all these young people you see 
around here are yours; although they are poor and little, yet 
they are your children. All my nation loves the whites and 
always have loved them. Some think, my Father, that you 




Council with Otoes by Major Long's Expedition. {From Thwaites's 
''Early Western Travels.'* Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 

have brought all these soldiers here to take our land from us 
but I do not believe it. For although I am a poor simple 
Indian, I know that this land will not suit your farmers. If 
I even thought your hearts bad enough to take this land, I 
would not fear it, as I know there is not wood enough on it 
for the use of the whites." 

White Cow, another Omaha chief, said: ''Look at me, 
my Father, look at my hands. I am a wild man born on the 
prairie. Look at me and see if there is any blood of your 
people upon me. Some whose hands are red with blood, try 
to wash it off, but it still remains.'^ 

In the council with the Pawnees, speeches were made by 



MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITION 47 

Long Hair, Knife Chief, Fool-Robes-Son, Petalesham. This 
last one was father of the famous chief of the same name. 
He spoke thus: ''Father, I am not afraid of these people, 
these Pawnees you see here. I have seen people travel in 
blood, I have traveled in blood myself, but it was the blood 
of redskins, no others. Father I have no longer a desire for 
war, I desire to eat in peace. I am glad to see you write 
down all that has been said. When a man dies his actions 
are forgotten; but when they are written down it is not so. 
When I have seen a person poor and I had a horse to spare, 
or a blanket, I have given it to them. From this time I 
undergo a change. I am now an American and you shall 
hear that this is true.'^ 

On June 6, 1820, Major Long with twenty-one men 
mounted on horses left the winter quarters on the banks of 
the Missouri for the head of the Platte River. They followed 
the Indian trail across the prairie to Papillion Creek, where 
they made their first camp. Keeping on the north side of 
the Platte, the party crossed the Elkhorn River, Shell Creek, 
and Beaver Creek, arriving on June 11th at the Pawnee 
villages on the Loup. 

The villages stretched along the Loup for a distance of 
ten miles and held about six thousand Pawnees. Eight 
thousand Indian ponies fed on the grass of the Loup valley 
about the villages. The Pawnees tried to persuade Major 
Long to go no farther, telling him that the fierce tribes of the 
upper Platte would eat up his little band. Major Long se- 
cured as guides two French trappers who were living with 
the Pawnees, and pushed on. 

June 21st the Long expedition arrived at the junction of 
the North Platte and South Platte. Crossing both streams 
the party continued for several days up the south bank of the 
South Platte, making its last stop in what is now Nebraska 
on the 26th of June near the corner of Deuel and Keith 
counties. The expedition marched to where the South 
Platte issues from its canyon in the Rocky Mountains, then 



48 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



turned south and returned to the Mississippi River by way 
of the Arkansas. 

There were two principal results from Major Long's 
expedition. The first was a very accurate description of 
Indian customs and Indian life as they existed among the 




Map of the Great American Desert as made by Major Long, 1820. 
{Drawing by Miss Martha Turner.) 



Omahas, Otoes, and Pawnees a hundred years ago. This 
series of stories of Indian life covers several hundred pages of 
his report. They w^ere obtained through Indian traders and 
interpreters who had spent their lives with these tribes, and 
are to-day one of the best sources of information upon them. 
The other result of Major Long's expedition was that all 
the country west of the Missouri River got a bad name, which 
stuck to it for fifty years. Upon the map prepared for Ma- 
jor Long appears the words ''Great Desert" stretching from 
the Platte valley to the Red River in Texas. In his report 



MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITION 49 

upon the country, Major Long said: ^'It is almost wholly 
unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable for people 
depending upon agriculture for their subsistence." 



QUESTIONS 

1. Was Big Elk's reasoning correct in regard to the white men and the Indian 

land? 

2. What do you think of Petalesharu's character from his speech? 

3. What did Major Long's expedition do for Nebraska? 



OLD FORT ATKINSON 

ON the site of the Council Bluff where Lewis and Clark 
first held council with the Indians, once stood Old Fort 
Atkinson, built in the year 1819, the first United States fort 
in Nebraska. The Rifle regiment and the Sixth Infantry 
were here. It was a large, strong fort with fifteen cannon 
and several hundred soldiers. Besides the soldiers there 
were teamsters, laborers, traders, hunters, trappers and 






MtNuoE sr. 



y 







FtAtHinson. 



CJX- 
catv 



JMRnRftPt □? (^ 






^- I I I I ' I [ 




Plan of Fort Atkinson, Nebraska, 1819-1827. {Drawing by Miss 
Martha Turner.) 

Indians, making a town of nearly a thousand people. They 
had a brick yard and a lime kiln. Rock was quarried from 
the ledges along the river. A saw mill and a grist mill were 
kept busy. Hundreds of acres of rich Nebraska land were 
farmed and thousands of bushels of grain raised. Roads 
ran in all directions from this fort on the Council Bluff. 
Indians came to it from all parts of the West for it was the 
most western army post in the United States. From far-off 

50 



OLD FORT ATKINSON 51 

Santa Fe Mexicans came here to meet the Pawnee Indians 
and make peace with them. White women were here. 
There were marriages and births. Children played about 
the bluff and the first school in Nebraska was taught here. 
Fort Atkinson was the largest town of early Nebraska and 
the only town in Nebraska at that time. 

To this fort in the summer of 1823 came the news that a 
party of American trappers had been fired upon by the 
Arikara Indians and about twenty of them killed. The 
Arikaras were related to the Pawnees. They lived on the 
Missouri river, in what is now South Dakota, five hundred 
miles above Fort Atkinson. They were different from the 
wild Indians on the plains for they lived in villages sur- 
rounded with walls of dirt and fenced with timbers set on 
end in the ground. An Arikara had stolen horses from the 
trappers. He was horsewhipped by them. This led to the 
attack on the trappers. 

There were very busy times in the old fort on the Council 
Bluff when the news came. The bugles rang out calling the 
soldiers to their colors. Cannon and powder and shot were 
loaded into keel boats. The hunters and trappers at the fort 
seized their rifles. General Leavenworth started with over 
two hundred soldiers. He was joined by four hundred 
Sioux warriors, who were enemies of the Arikaras, and by 
several parties of hunters and rivermen. It was a month's 
march along the shores of the Missouri to reach the Arikara 
villages. The keel boats with the cannon, powder and food 
were pulled up the river with ropes. Never before had such 
an army been seen on the North Nebraska prairies. On 
August 8th they arrived at the Arikara villages. The can- 
non were placed on a hill and their heavy balls fired into the 
village while the Sioux under their chief White Bear fought 
with the Arikara warriors outside the walls. Gray Eyes, 
chief of the Arikaras, and about forty of his people were 
killed. The tribe sued for peace and a treaty was made 
while the white soldiers and the Sioux feasted on roasting 



52 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

ears from the Ankara cornfields. No white soldiers were 
killed and the army returned to Fort Atkinson. This is 
called the Arikara war of 1823 and is the first war on the 
Nebraska frontier. 

There was quiet for a long time at Fort Atkinson. We 
know that in the summer the fur traders came up the river 
and keel boats from St. Louis brought stores and news from 
the world below. In the winter sleds traveled across the 
snow to other posts. Hunting parties from the fort went out 
to kill game for the soldiers. So many elk and deer were 
killed in this way that the Omaha tribe could find no food 
on their old hunting grounds. Big Elk, chief of the tribe, 
came to the fort for help, saying that his people were starving 
while the soldiers killed and drove away the game. 

In 1827 Fort Atkinson was abandoned by the United 
States. All the soldiers were sent down the Missouri River. 
They drove away a great herd of cattle which supplied them 
with beef. They left the plowed fields to grow up with 
grass and weeds. All that was of use and could be carried 
was taken away. The buildings were left. The traders and 
hunters went to Bellevue and other posts down the river. 
It was said that the Indians burned the buildings after the 
soldiers were gone. 

Six years later Maximilian, the great German traveler, 
found the fort in ruins. The great stone chimneys were 
standing and a brick storehouse was still under roof. Rat- 
tlesnakes made the place their home. 

When the early settlers came to this part of Nebraska in 
1854 and 1855, they were glad to find that the United States 
had provided them with such a supply of brick and stone 
ready to use for their chimneys and cellars. They tore down 
the ruins and carried them away to their farms. 

To-day the little village of Fort Calhoun, sixteen miles 
north of Omaha, adjoins the site of Old Fort Atkinson. On 
the summit of the Council Bluff may still be traced the 
parade ground, the place where the flagstaff stood, the rows 



OLD FORT ATKINSON 



53 




Flint Lock and Cannon Ball from Fort 

Atkinson. {From photograph collection 

of A. E. Sheldon.) 



of cellars where once were the officers' quarters and the bar- 
racks where the soldiers lived. The ashes and broken brick 
where the great fireplaces were may still be found, as also the 
powder vault and the 
road running down 
Hook's Hollow to the 
boat landing on the river. 
Every spring when 
the people make gardens 
they plow up bullets and 
buttons with the name 
^'Rifles" or the figure 
^'6" for the Sixth In- 
fantry, on them. Gold 
and silver coins are also 
found. Most of them are Spanish coins with far away dates 
upon them, telling of the time when Spain ruled the greater 
part of America and her coins were in commerce everjnvhere. 
Such is the story of the Council Bluff and Old Fort Atkin- 
son, the scene of the first council with Nebraska Indians, the 

site of the first fort, 
and the first impor- 
tant town in the 
state. It was the 
center of busy life 
one hundred years 
ago. To-day the 
Missouri River is 
three miles away 
from the old landing 
beneath the bluff. 
The fort and its 
soldiers are gone. The Indian trader and hunter come no 
more. The Mexican no longer crosses the plains to make 
peace with the Pawnee. The very name of the old fort is 
forgotten. Yet here is one of the historic spots of early 




A Fort Atkinson Gravestone. (Froin pho- 
tograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 



54 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




The First School Kept in Nebraska. Orderly Book No. 18, Head- 
quarters 6th Infantry, Fort Atkinson, Feb. 4, 1822 

Nebraska whose memories should be cherished and whose 
story deserves to be told. 



QUESTIONS 

Why did not white settlers come into Nebraska and farm as soon as 
the soldiers at Fort Atkinson found that fine crops could be grown on 
its rich land? 

Why should the Omaha Indians be in danger of starving in such a rich 
land as Nebraska? 

What does Fort Atkinson stand for in the "first things" of Nebraska? 

What should be done with the site of old Fort Atkinson? 



BELLEVUE 

NO one living knows just when the first white men settled 
at Bellevue. The story has many times been told how 
Manuel Lisa climbed the sloping hills from the riverside 
where his boat lay moored and as his eye swept that wonder- 
ful panorama of forest, hill and river he exclaimed in French, 
^'Belle vue;" that he then staked out his fur trader's cabin 
in the valley below and thus began the first white settlement 
in our state. This was in the year 1810, so the story goes. 
Manuel Lisa himself left no writing to prove it and we know 
that Fort Lisa, his chief fur trading post, was twenty miles 
farther up the Missouri River. The old fur traders died long 
ago and the trees and hills about Bellevue which looked down 
upon their boats in the river tell no tales of these early 
'Woyageurs." The Astorians who passed up the river in 
1811 made no mention of the trading post of Bellevue and 
the soldiers who built Fort Atkinson in 1819 on the Council 
BlufT twenty-five miles above are equally silent in regard 
to it. 

The fur trading records first tell of Bellevue in 1823. 
There was then a fur trading post and an Indian agency, 
called the Council BlufTs Indian Agency, at Bellevue. The 
Omahas, Otoes and Pawnees came there to trade. It was 
easier for the fur traders and Indians to meet at Bellevue than 
at any other post on the river. The smooth valley of the 
Platte made a natural pathway ; the rock foundation of the 
hills sloping to the riverside made a natural landing place for 
boats; wood and water were at hand; and the beautiful view 
down the valley where the Platte and Missouri mingle their 
waters among forested islands added to the other attractions. 
When the soldiers abandoned Fort Atkinson in 1827 and 
marched away, Bellevue became the chief post and the oldest 

55 



56 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



town in fact as well as in story of the Nebraska country. 
The first of these honors she retained through all the fur 
trading years and the second remains hers to-day. 

Belle\aie was the stopping place of the early adventurers, 
trappers, travelers, missionaries and soldiers who came to 
this region. The early names in our annals cluster about 
Bellevue. Peter A. Sarpy, Henry Fontenelle, Prince Maxi- 
milian, George Catlin, John C. Fremont, Professor Hay den, 
J. Sterling Morton, Brigham Young, each halted at this 




Bellevue in 1833. 



{From Thwaites's "Early Western Travels." Arthur H. 
Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 



hospitable lodge in the wilderness. The Indians of the 
Platte valley brought hither their furs. Missionaries made 
here their first attempt to civilize and Christianize Nebraska. 
When steamboats began to make regular trips up the 
Missouri, Bellevue was one of the principal landing places. 
In 1846 the Presbj^terian Church fixed on Bellevue as the 
site of its principal mission to the western Indians and in 



BELLEVUE 



57 



1848 the old mission building standing to-day was built. 
Here came the first governor to the Nebraska territory in 
1854 and here the first newspaper, the Nebraska Palladium, 
was printed. All the signs then pointed to Bellevue as a 
future great metropolis of the Platte valley. 

Then came disaster after disaster to Bellevue 's fond hopes 




Bellevue Woods as Seen To-day. Top of Child's Point, Looking East. 
(From photo collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 

and aspirations. The capital was located at Omaha. The 
Pacific Railroad left a natural crossing at Bellevue and a 
natural roadway up the valley of the Platte to find a more 
difficult crossing and longer route through Omaha. Sarpy 
county was created with Bellevue as the county seat, but 
even this distinction was carried off by the new town of 
Papillion in 1875. 



58 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

Bellevue still stands by the riverside, the oldest town in 
Nebraska. Her early ambitions have been blighted but a 
wonderful compensation for their loss is hers. Hers is still 
the most beautiful site upon the river. No noise of factories 
or warehouses, no crowding of jealous poverty and sordid 
wealth within her borders, no ugly skyscrapers blot out her 
landscape. No clamor and rivalry of the market place dis- 
turb her visions. She is still Old Bellevue, with all the glory 
and romance and early dreams of old Nebraska gathered 
within her borders. She is now and forever will remain the 
center of interest for all those who love the story of Nebras- 
ka 's early days, and the keeper of Nebraska's earliest mem- 
ories and traditions for all time. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What reasons can you give why Bellevue did not become the largest 

citj^ in Nebraska? 

2. What reasons for believing that Bellevue was not founded in 1810? 

3. In what sense is Bellevue Nebraska's oldest town? 

4. What has determined the location of Nebraska towns and cities, judging 

from those you know? 

5. Of what use to the state are historic places and old towns? 



GEORGE CATLIN 

GEORGE CATLIN was the first painter of Nebraska 
scenery and Nebraska Indians. Before him Thomas 
Seymour, one of the members of Major Long's expedition, 
made a few sketches, but the real first honors belong to 
Catlin. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1796, educated to 
be a lawyer, but became a portrait painter instead. A dele- 
gation of Indians from the far West came to Philadelphia 
where he had his art studio. He resolved to become the 
painter of Indians and Indian life. He forsook the studio, 
came to St. Louis and took passage on the steamer Yellow- 
stone on her first voyage to the upper waters of the Missouri 
River. This was in the year 1832. He stayed that winter 
with the Mandan Indians and came down the Missouri the 
next year, visiting all the tribes and painting pictures at 
every stopping place. 

Along Nebraska shores Catlin painted pictures of Black- 
bird Hill, of Belle vue, of the junction of the Platte and 
Missouri rivers, of prairie fires, buffalo hunting, Indian 
weapons, games, customs and portraits of prominent Indians. 
There were no cameras in those days and Catlin 's oil paint- 
ings make our first picture gallery. 

Catlin saw the fertility as well as the beauty of Nebraska. 
This description written by him of the country near Black- 
bird Hill is true to-day as it was then: 

''There is no more beautiful prairie country in the world 
than that which is to be seen here. In looking back from 
this bluff toward the west there is one of the most beautiful 
scenes imaginable. The surface of the country is gracefully 
and sUghtly undulating, like the swells of the ocean after a 
heavy storm, and everywhere covered with a beautiful green 
turf and with occasional patches and clusters of trees. The 

59 



60 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



soil in this region is also rich and capable of making one of 
the most beautiful and productive countries in the world. 
From this enchanting spot there is nothing to arrest the eye 
from ranging over the waters of the Missouri for the distance 
of twenty or thirty miles, where it quietly glides between its 
barriers formed of thousands of green and gracefully sloping 



^' 


B^^^H 


^^^jig^< ' \ '"^^^^^ ^^""" ™ 


^^mmm^ " 


H^t^ 





The Steamer Yellowstone. {From Thwaites^s ^' Early Western Travels.'' 
Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 

hills, with its rich alluvial meadows and woodlands — and 
its hundred islands covered with stately Cottonwood.'' 

Cathn was the first white man to visit and describe the 
great Red Pipestone quarry on the border of South Dakota 
and Minnesota from which come the smoking pipes used by 
Indians far and near. In his honor this rock is called cat- 
linite. As related elsewhere, Catlin carried away from Ne- 
braska the skull from the burial mound of the Omaha chief 
Blackbird. 



GEORGE CATLIN 61 

In 1840 Catlin visited Europe with a company of Ameri- 
can Indians and gave entertainments in the principal coun- 
tries. In 1857 he pubUshed his book on North American 
Indians with over 400 illustrations made from his oil paint- 
ings. He died in New Jersey in 1872, having visited forty- 
eight Indian tribes and made over five hundred paintings 
of Indian life. These paintings are now in the National 
Museum at Washington, forming what is known as " Catlin 's 
North American Indian Gallery." 



QUESTIONS 

1. In what respects was Catlin's work different from that of the other early 

explorers? 

2. Wherein is his work of special interest and value? 

3. What other artists have made pictures and statues of the American Indian i: 

4. Why has the Indian been so interesting to writers and artists? 



PRINCE MAXIMILIAN 

PRINCE MAXIMILIAN was born in Germany in 1782. 
His full title was Maximilian, Prince von Wied. He 
was born with a fortune as well as a noble title and might 
have wasted his life in idleness and luxury like many other 
princes. But Prince Maximilian from childhood loved 
study. More than anything else he loved the study of 
nature. The new world across the ocean, with its unex- 
plored wilderness, drew him to its wilds. He spent two 
years in the forests of Brazil and wrote several volumes upon 
that then unknown region. 

In 1833, Prince Maximilian made his famous journey up 
the Missouri River on the second voyage of the steamer Yel- 
lowstone. With him were skilled artists and scientists from 
Europe who gathered specimens and painted pictures of the 
country through which they traveled. The next year 
Prince Maximilian returned to Europe and four years later 
published at Coblentz, Germany, a story of his travels in 
North America in three volumes, one of which is an art 
portfolio filled with sketches and pictures of western life. 

Nebraska owes a great deal to Prince Maximilian. He 
made our country and its people known in Europe. Of all 
the writers on early Nebraska he seems the most charming. 
He had the trained eye of the German scientist and the 
imagination of a poet. Reading his stories and looking at 
his pictures the Nebraska of 1833 rises before us. The 
steamer Yellowstone comes again from St. Louis, beating its 
way up the Missouri River against the swift yellow current 
in late April and early May. The leaf buds break, the birds 
salute the silences, the flowers bloom, all the way along the 
Nebraska coast. He names each of them in both the Ger- 
man and Latin tongues with loving attention and praise. 

62 



PRINCE MAXIMILIAN 63 

He saw and felt the spirit of the West. The eagle's nest 
above the river, the ruined cabin in a dark valley, the angry 
wind storm, the moonlight on the Missouri, the faces and 
manners of the Indians and fur traders, the rich soil, the 
flowing streams, the forests where the steamer stopped to cut 
wood for its furnace, are all fresh and real in his stories and 
in his pictures. Some of the things which he saw in Nebras- 
ka are best given in his own words: 

'^ In a dark valley of the forest we saw a long Indian cabin 
which reached nearly across the vale and must have been 
built for a large number of men. The location was wild and 
beautiful. The bald-headed eagles nest everywhere in the 
top of the high trees along the shore. One of them was shot 
with a rifle. In places smoke rose out of the depths of the 
forest, in others the wood and the ground were black from 
fires. Sometimes the Indians start these fires in order to 
destroy their trail when followed by enemies, at other times 
they arise from campfires of fur traders on the river banks. 

We saw wild geese with their downy young goslings. 
The old birds would not desert their children even when our 
people shot among them. 

***** 

In a beautiful wild region we reached the mouth of the 

great Nemaha River. The hunting huts of the Indians stood 

in the forest, but nowhere was man to be seen. One travels 

hundreds of miles on this river without seeing one human 

being. 

***** 

In the evening the sun, as it sank below the treetops, 
gave the region a glow of parting light. We enjoyed a view 
of the violet, red and purple tinted hills while the wide mirror 
of the Missouri and surrounding forests glowed as though on 
fire. Quiet reigned in this remote scene of nature for the 



64 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

wind had lulled and only the puffing and rushing of the 
steamboat broke the sublime silence. 



At night we lay by near Morgan's Island. The whip- 
poor-wills, one of the birds we had not met before, here filled 
all the forests with their voices. 



On the left bank where the wide prairie clasped a wood 
in its embrace the little Nemaha River broke through. At 
its mouth the Missouri is very shallow. A great wind blew 
our steamer upon the sand. One of our smoke stacks was 
blown down. Crows flew over us screaming and a sand- 
piper with dark red legs ran about on the sandbar near the 
ship. We saw the different kinds of grackle (blackbirds) 
flying together, the beautiful yellow-headed ones, the red- 
shouldered ones, and the bronze variety. 

Toward night a great flight of more than 100 pelicans 
went over us in a northerly direction. Their formation was 
wedge shaped, at times a half circle. We could clearly see 
the black wing feathers, the pouch of the throat and the long 
slanting bills. Our hunters killed some wild turkeys in the 
twilight. A beautiful flower (phlox) colors great fields with 
blue and the blue-birds ' quiet little song was heard. 

Our hunters brought on board a raccoon, a rattlesnake 
and black snake, and found a wild goose nest with three eggs. 
Near by we saw trails of Indians, great wolf tracks in the 
sand, and on the trees the places where the stags had rubbed 
their growing antlers. 

A hunter broke off a poison vine. His hands and face are 
badly swollen to-day. 



PRINCE MAXIMILIAN 65 

We reached the mouth of Weeping Water creek. In the 
bushes above us the birds sang a httle soft song or twittering. 
The fox-colored thrush (brown thrasher) trilled in the tops 
of the cottonwoods where he loves to sit. Here were many 
plants such as columbine, maiden-hair fern, red mulberry, 
blue-eyed giass, puccoon and purple vetch. 



At two o'clock in the afternoon of May 3rd we reached 
Mr. Fontenelle's house at Bellevue. The land is here very 
fruitful and a poorly cultivated acre yields one hundred 
bushels of Indian corn. It would return much more if care- 
fully worked. Cattle also succeed here splendidly, give 
much milk but require salt from time to time. Mr. Fonte- 
nelle thought he would have five thousand head of swine in 
a few years if the Indians did not steal too many from him. 



We lay by for the night a few miles above Bellevue (prob- 
ably near where Omaha now is). Ducks and shore birds 
covered the banks about us. Stillness reigned in the wide 
wilderness. Only the whip-poor-will's voice was heard 
while the moon mirrored itself in the river where some of our 
young people were bathing. In the morning our ship, like 
a smoke-vomiting monster, frightened all living creatures. 
Geese and ducks flew in all directions. 



We landed at Mr. Cabanne's trading post (ten miles 
above Omaha) and to our joy we saw a crowd of Otoe and 
Omaha Indians. Many of them were marked with small- 
pox, some had only one eye or a film over the other eye. 
Their faces were striped with red. Their hair was hanging 
disorderly down to the neck. A small brook with steep 
banks flows down to the river from a pleasant little side val- 
ley in which are the corn plantations. Mr. Cabanne had 



66 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



planted here fifteen acres of maize which produces yearly 
two thousand bushels of this grain, for the yield is very great. 

* * Sf{ * * 

Sitting upon the balcony of Mr. Cabanne 's house we en- 
joyed a wonderful evening. The proud Missouri glistened 
with splendor in the glory of the full moon. Quiet reigned 

about us, only the frogs 
croaked and the whip- 
poor-wills called contin- 
ually in the forest near 
by. Twenty Omahas 
appeared before us. The 
chief dancer, a large tall 
man, wore on his head 
a high feather helmet, 
made of the long tail and 
wing feathers of owls and 
eagles. In his hand he 
carried a bow and ar- 




MissouRi, Oto and Puncah Indians, 
1833. {From Thwaites's "Early Western 
Travels.'^ Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleve- 
land, Ohio.) 



rows. The upper half of his body was naked except for 
a white skin which hung over his right shoulder and was 
decorated with tufts of feathers. He was painted with 
white spots and stripes and looked wild and warlike. 
Another younger man with him bore in his hand a war club 
with white stripes and a skunk skin at the handle. They 
formed a line while in front of them a drum was beaten with 
rapid stroke. Several men beat time with war clubs and all 
of them sang ''Hei, hei, hei," or else ''Heh, heh, heh," be- 
tween times shouting loud yells. The dance was like this: 
springing w^ith both feet, a short leap into the air, with the 
body bent forward while the drum was struck a sharp blow 
and their weapons were lifted and shaken. In this manner 
they jumped about with great force for over an hour, the 
sweat flowing from their bodies. A clear moonlight lit up 
the wide still wilderness; the savage tumult of the Indian 



PRINCE MAXIMILIAN 67 

bands and the call of the night birds made this a scene to 
be long remembered. 

***** 

In December, 1918, the castle of Prince Maximilian 
at Neu Wied, on the Rhine, was the headquarters of an 
American general and his staff. The library of Prince 
Maximilian was still in the castle. Many paintings of him 
and souvenirs of his travels in America were also there. 
The Missouri region Indian material which he gathered 
in 1833 had been sent as a gift to Brazil, along with material 
from South America, by the present Prince of Wied, about 
twenty years ago. A picture and a bust of Prince Maxi- 
milian are now in the rooms of the Nebraska State Histori- 
cal Society. 

Prince Maximilian died at Neu Wied, Germany, Febru- 
ary 3, 1867, less than a month before this part of the wilder- 
ness he so well described became a state. He left a great 
museum to his home city. To the world he left the record of 
a busy life well spent and to Nebraska the best stories and 
the best pictures of her early days. His name deserves to 
be better known in our state where now live nearly two 
hundred thousand people of German descent, rejoicing in the 
traditions and memories of the old country, rejoicing no less 
in their homes and in the freedom and prosperity found in 
the West, whose great fortune Prince Maximilian foretold. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Make a list of the birds which Prince Maximihan found here. Make a 

Hst of the flowers. On each list place a check (X) after those which 
you know. 

2. Just why was it that Prince Maximilian saw so much here which other 

explorers did not notice? 

3. John Burroughs says that we cannot see a bird on the bush unless we 

have a bird in our heart. What does he mean? 

4. Did Prince Maximilian love nature? What tells? 

5. Which sees life most truly, the scientist or the poet? 

6. What tells that Prince Maximihan was both scientist and poet? 



SCOTT'S BLUFF 

IN the early fur trading days, about the year 1830, a party 
of trappers came down the North Platte River in canoes. 
A little way above where Laramie River joins the Platte their 
canoes were upset in the rapids and their supply of powder 
and food was lost. One of their number named Scott was 
taken sick and could not travel. At the same time his com- 
rades found the fresh trail of another party of trappers. 







HRMHi 


— ^- i 


»:»:":;«' ^ ' SSI^^l^Sl 


■Hll 


|H 



Scott's Bluff. {From photo collection of A. E. Sheldon). 

They left Scott alone at the mouth of the Laramie River, 
promising to return for him as soon as they had secured 
supplies from the other trappers. 

Instead of returning they reported that he had died on the 
Laramie River and continued their journey down the North 
Platte. The next year trappers on their way to the moun- 
tains found the skeleton of Scott near a spring by the great 
bluff which now bears his name. Sick and starving he had 

68 



SCOTT'S BLUFF 69 

dragged himself before dying forty miles down the river from 
the point where his comrades had deserted him. 

His name survives in the great headland which rises eight 
hundred feet above the river, the most prominent landmark 
in the North Platte valley, while the names of his treacherous 
companions are lost. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why did Scott's companions desert him? 

2. How was their story proven untrue? 

3. Which would you rather have been, Scott or one of his companions? 



THE FIRST NEBRASKA MISSIONARIES 

AFTER the explorer and the fur trader the missionary 
came to Nebraska. Rev. Moses Merrill and his wife, 
Eliza Wilcox, were the first to come. They were sent out in 
1833 to the Otoe Indians by the Baptist Missionary Union. 
At that time the Otoe tribe lived along the Platte as far west 
as the mouth of the Elkhorn. Their largest village was in 
Saunders County about ten miles north of the place where 
Ashland now is. They hunted south and west along Salt 
Creek, Weeping Water and the Nemaha. 

Mr. Merrill and his wife drove an ox team from Missouri 
to Belle vue. Here was an Indian trading post where the 
Otoe, Omaha and Pawnee Indians came to trade furs and 
skins for white man 's goods. 

At first very few Indians attended the missionary meet- 
ings and those who came begged for corn, potatoes and 
whisky. Mr. Merrill began to study the Otoe language in 
order that he might talk to the Indians without an interpre- 
ter and translate the Bible and hymns into their tongue. In 
this way he spent the first winter. 

The next spring Mr. Merrill rode on horseback, fording 
two rivers, to the Otoe village on the south bank of the 
Platte near Ashland. He was received by Itan, the great 
chief of the Otoes, in one of his lodges which was made by 
setting large trunks of trees in the ground, laying poles on 
them and covering the whole with grass and dirt. This 
lodge of Itan was circular in form and measured a hundred 
and twenty feet in circumference. 

Itan gave Mr. Merrill a feast of boiled buffalo meat served 
in a wooden bowl. It was to be eaten with the fingers, the 
guest eating first. All the rest waited until he had finished. 
Itan was a great chief. He had five wives and four houses 

70 



THE FIRST NEBRASKA MISSIONARIES 



71 



for them to live in. The town of Yutan in Saunders County 
is named for him. It is only three miles from where his lodge 
stood. 

On Sunday, the next day, Mr. Merrill was invited out to 
eat four times before noon. He went, and after eating, read 
to the Indians part of his translation of the Bible. He 
showed the children some pictures 
and began to teach them to sing 
the scale. The children were 
deeply interested and tried hard 
to sound the notes as the white 
man did. At the end of a week 
two of the children could sing the 
scale correctly and knew twenty- 
two letters of the alphabet. 

One day Mr. Merrill learned 
that fifty Otoes had gone to the 
white trading post with fifty bea- 
ver skins, worth five hundred dol- 
lars, to trade for whisky. Chief 
Itan spoke in strong words to the 
missionary against the curse of the 
white man's strong water. On 
the very next day he and another 
Otoe chief were drunk and talked 
very loud against whisky, saying 
that it was bad, the Indians did 
not make it, the white 
to blame. 




The 



Building of an Earth 
Lodge 
man was 

Mr. Merrill kept on trying to teach them better. 



reading verses from the Bible and praying for them. 

One Indian was sick and the Otoe medicine men came to 
cure him. The sick man was stretched out naked in his 
lodge. The medicine men beat their drums, shook their rat- 
tles and danced around him, each stopping to take a mouthful 
of water from time to time and to spurt it on the sick man 's 
head. It is to be hoped that he survived this treatment. 



72 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

Then the Otoes went away for their summer hunt. When 
they came back in the fall they brought skins and began to 
trade them for whisky. Mr. Merrill wrote from a trading 
post where whisky was sold as follows: ''This is not the 
house of God, nor the gate of heaven. It is rather the house 
of Satan and the gate of hell. Two kegs of whisky were 
carried from the house this morning by Indians. They will 
trade their horses, their guns and even their blankets for this 
poisonous drink." 

It was against the law then, as now, to sell liquor to 
Indians, but Nebraska was far out on the frontier and the 
white traders could make greater profit by selling whisky 
than in any other way. 

In September, 1835, Mr. Merrill moved his family to the 
Otoe Mission on the Platte River, about eight miles west of 
Bellevue. Here the government built a log cabin and a 
schoolhouse which enabled him to carry on his mission work 
away from the evils of the trading post. It was a beautiful 
site with an open prairie sloping to the Platte, with rich 
meadow for stock and gardening and a large body of timber 
close by. Half of the Otoe tribe moved there and made their 
village at the mission. 

The Otoes were very poor these years and became poorer. 
They hunted deer, elk and buffalo in the summer of 1836 and 
brought home very little meat. Their appetite for whisky 
was greater than before and the more bad luck they had the 
more whisky they wanted. Many were sick with fever this 
summer and Mr. Merrill gave them food and medicine, cared 
for them and tried hard to have them give up liquor and look 
after their crops and families. He urged them to keep away 
from the places where whisky was sold and this stirred up the 
traders against him, as the whisky trade was their best busi- 
ness. For a single tin cup full of whisky the trader would 
often get ten dollars' worth of furs. 

WTien the people became sick and began to die the traders 
told them that God was angry with the Otoes for having the 



THE FIRST NEBRASKA MISSIONARIES 73 

missionaries among them. Two pupils in Mr. Merrill's 
school died in the fall and the traders said that they were 
killed for learning to read. As the whisky habit grew in the 
tribe the men became miserable and quarrelsome. The 
United States had sent a farmer and a blacksmith to teach 
the Indians how to farm and to make tools for them. These 
men and their families lived near the Mission. Drunken 
Otoes shot at the farmer and both he and the blacksmith 
moved their families back to Bellevue, leaving Mr. and Mrs. 
Merrill alone among the Indians at the village. 

Two of Itan 's wives ran away with two Otoe young men. 
Itan was in a very great rage and said that he would kill the 
young men when they came back. News was brought that 
these braves were in the village and Itan took his gun and 
pistol to kill them. When he passed the mission house Mr. 
and Mrs. Merrill went out and begged him not to begin a 
bloody fight. He was wild for revenge and went on. The 
two young men came out to meet Chief Itan singing their 
war song. The chief fired his musket at one of the young 
men and missed him. Then one of the chief's friends fired 
at the same 3^oung man and he fell. He rose, however, and 
shot the chief through the body. A brother of this young 
man then shot Itan the second time. One of Itan 's friends 
shot the brother. A third young man shot Itan again and 
was at once shot himself. The three young men and Chief 
Itan died that evening. Two of them were Mr. Merrill's 
pupils. This happened on April 28, 1837. The whole Otoe 
tribe was torn into factions by this tragedy. Some wanted 
to kill the friends of the young men, others to avenge their 
death. The bloody feud over the fight lasted for many years. 

After Itan 's death Melhunca, the second chief in the tribe, 
came to take breakfast with Mr. Merrill. He wanted pres- 
ents and said that the traders told him it was bad for the 
teacher to live near him and never give the Indians presents 
or fine clothes, and sugar and coffee as the traders did. Mr. 
and Mrs. Merrill tried to show him that they were poor and 



74 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

had no means of making great profits, as the traders had 
selhng whisky. They urged him to keep away from Hquor. 
He soon became angry and said he was going at once to the 
trading post to trade horses for whisky. On the next day 
the school children who were given bread for lunch every 
day they came to read began to complain loudly and said 
that they would not read any more unless they were given 
a full dinner every day. 

In August, 1837, a band of fifty loway Indians came over 
from the Weeping Water to trade with the Otoes. They 
brought fifteen kegs of whisky. Mr. Merrill held a great 
temperance meeting that day. The next day the whole Otoe 
village was drinking whisky. One Otoe had his ears cut off 
and another was stabbed and died. The loways left, taking 
with them six Otoe ponies, paid for in whisky. 

In 1838 Mr. Merrill went with the Otoes on their buffalo 
hunt. By this time he had learned to speak their language 
and had translated portions of the Bible and several hymns 
into Otoe. The Otoe hymns had been printed in a book with 
the name : 

Wdtwhtl Wdwdklha Eva Wdhonetl 
and was the first Nebraska book ever made. 

In spite of all Mr. Merrill could do the Otoe men cared 
more for whisky and less for good things every year. They 
no longer loved their old time games and exercises. They 
longed for the white man's fire-water and the visions that 
danced before their brains when they drank it more than for 
all the gospel messages and Christian hymns brought by the 
missionary. All they could get was spent for liquor and 
food was begged from the mission. The young men became 
impudent and pretended to be Sioux in order to frighten the 
missionary family. 

It was six years since Mr. Merrill and his wife came to 
give their lives in teaching and saving one tribe of Nebraska 
Indians. A baby boy, Samuel Pearce, had been born to 
them in 1835. He became a Baptist minister and was until 



THE FIRST NEBRASKA MISSIONARIES 



75 




Old 



Otoe Mission (From photograph 
hy A. E. Sheldon.) 



his death the second oldest white person born in Nebraska, 
the oldest being Major Wilham Clark Kennerly, of St. 
Louis, Mo., who was born at Ft. Atkinson, Nov. 2, 1824. 
They had built a large log mission house with a great stone 
chimney which could be seen for many miles. In this 
they held school on week 
days for the Otoe chil- 
dren and here they held 
their Sunday services. 

A new and deadly 
enemy to the mission 
appeared. Mr. Merrill 
became the victim of 
consumption. Exposure, 
overwork and grief has- 
tened its ravages. He 
was deeply discouraged 

and wrote in his diary at this time: '^Formerly Mrs. 
Merrill felt perfectly safe day or night, but it is not so now. 
The Otoes trample upon my property and rights unre- 
proved. They occupy my pasture with their cattle and 
horses when it suits their convenience, often leaving the 
fence thrown down. They steal my potatoes, pumpkins 
and corn by night. As we are alone it would not be prudent 
to resist these thefts. How long we shall be able to live 
quietly in our own habitation is uncertain. Indeed we are 
disturbed often now. My family fear these vagrant Otoes. 
These Indians do not feel friendly toward white people. 
They are ungrateful for favors received.'^ 

Mr. Merrill grew worse rapidly. He died on February 
6, 1840, and was buried on the east bank of the Missouri 
River opposite Bellevue. The Otoes called him '^The- 
One-Who-Always-Speaks-The-Truth". 

Near Richland Station in Sarpy County, sloping gently to 
the Platte River, is a grove of giant cottonwoods over eighty 
years old. In their midst stands an old building with a great 



76 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

stone chimney. This is the monument and witness to-day oi 
the hfe and labors of the first missionaries to Nebraska. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What two rivers did Moses Merrill ford in going from Bellevue to the 

Otoe village? 

2. Why did the Nebraska Indians build their lodges out of earth? 

3. Why did the Indians wait until Mr. Merrill finished before the}' ate? 

4. Could Indians sing before Mr. Merrill taught them the scale? Why? 

5. Who was to blame for the ruin caused by whisky, the white man or the 

Indian? 

6. What do you know of Itan's character from this story? 

7. Explain the action of the Otoe school children in demanding a full dinner 

and tell what you think of it. 

8. Was Mr. Merrill's mission to the Otoes a success? Why? 



FATHER De SMET 




ONE of the most honored names in Nebraska annals is 
that of Father Pierre Jean De Smet, first Cathohc mis- 
sionary to the Indians of the Platte and upper Missouri 
region. He was born in Belgium January 30, 1801, came 
to St. Louis in 1823, and in 1838 
reached Council Bluffs, Iowa, as 
missionary to the Pottawatomie In- 
dians who had just removed from 
their old home in Illinois to the 
borders of Nebraska. 

For the next thirty years Father 
De Smet was the most active mis- 
sionary in the western world. He 
explored the plains and mountains, 
crossed the continent several times 
to the Pacific Ocean, founded mis- 
sions wherever he went and gained 
the confidence of the Indians every- 
where. He also made many visits to Europe to secure 
funds for mission work. 

Only a small part of Father De Smet's active life was 
spent in the region which is now Nebraska, but he was 
known and loved by all the tribes of Nebraska Indians and 
probably had more influence over them than had any other 
man at any time. Four times he crossed Nebraska over the 
Oregon Trail, and seventeen times on steamboat, skiff or 
canoe he followed the waters of the Missouri River past the 
Nebraska shores. 

The beauty of early Nebraska Father De Smet was quick 
to see and appreciate. No better picture of our own Platte 
River has ever been given than this by him in 1840: 

77 



Father De Smet. (From 
Chittenden &' Richardson's 
"'Life, Letters Of Travels of 
Father De SmetV Francis 
P. Harper, N. Y.) 



78 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

^'I was often struck with admiration at the sight of the 
picturesque scenes which we enjoyed all the way up the 
Platte. Think of the big ponds that you have seen in the 
parks of European noblemen, dotted with little wooded 
islands. The Platte offers you these by thousands and of all 
shapes. I have seen groups of islands that one might easily 
take, from a distance, for fleets under sail, garlanded with 
verdure and festooned with flowers; and the rapid flow of the 
river past them made them seem to be flying over the 
water." 

The future of this region was clearly foreseen by this great 
missionary. The vacant plains stirred within him mem- 
ories of the crowded peoples of Europe when he wrote : 

^'In my visits to the Indian tribes I have several times 
traversed the immense plains of the West. Every time I 
have found myself amid a painful void. Europe 's thousands 
of poor who cry for bread and wander without shelter or hope 
often occur to my thoughts. 'Unhappy poor,' I often cry, 
'why are ye not here? Your industry and toil would end 
your sorrows. Here you might rear a smiling home and reap 
in plenty the fruit of your toil.' The sound of the axe and 
hammer will echo in this wilderness; broad farms with or- 
chard and vineyard, alive with domestic animals and poultry, 
will cover these desert plains to provide for thick-coming 
cities which will rise as if by enchantment with dome and 
tower, church and college, school and house, hospital and 
asylums." 

Father De Smet was present and took an active part in 
the first Fort Laramie council of 1851, which resulted in the 
treaty of that year. He wrote the best account of this great 
event in Indian history. Although called ''The Fort Lara- 
mie Treaty" the council was held and the treaty made forty 
miles ea«t of Fort Laramie in what is now Scotts Bluff Coun- 
ty, Nebraska. Here, on a vast plain where the waters of 
Horse Creek unite with those of the Platte, the tribes of the 
plains and the mountains met and for the first time made a 



FATHER DeSMET 79 

treaty with the United States, peace with each other and a 
division of the land among the tribes. This council lasted 
for eighteen days and was attended by over 10,000 Indians. 
Here Father De Smet was greeted by thousands whose homes 
he had visited; his advice was eagerly sought on the great 
questions before them and the rite of baptism was adminis- 
tered by him to 1586 Indians. 

The Sioux were always near the heart of Father De Smet. 
He admired their courage and independence. He sought to 
abate their cruelty. In a great speech to them he told how 
the Indians at the head of the Missouri had buried the 
hatchet and forsaken the white man 's firewater. He asked 
them to do the same. The head chief replied : 

''Black-robe, I speak in the name of the chiefs and 
braves. The words you bring from the Master of Life are 
fair. We love them. We hear them to-day for the first 
time. 

''Black-robe, you are only passing by our land. To- 
morrow we will hear your voice no more. We shall be, as we 
have been, like the Wishtonwish (prairie dogs) who have 
their lodges in the ground and know nothing. 

"Black-robe, come and set up your lodge with us. We 
have bad hearts, but those who bring the good word have 
never got as far as to us. Come and we will listen and our 
young men will learn to have sense.'' 

Father De Smet's greatest service to Nebraska and the 
West occurred in 1868. For several years a bloody war had 
raged along the Sioux border. A peace commission had been 
sent from Washington to Fort Laramie with General Sher- 
man at its head. Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and other hostile 
chiefs had gone with several thousand followers into the wild 
region northwest of the Black Hills. At the request of the 
United States Father De Smet left his home at St. Louis and 
journeyed by steamboat up the Missouri River to Fort Rice 
near the mouth of Cannonball River in North Dakota. From 
here he set out alone with an interpreter and escort of Indi- 



80 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Indian Welcome to Fattier De Smet. 
{From Chittenden & Richai'dson' s "Life, 
Letters & Travels of Father De Smet." 
Francis P. Harper, N. Y.) 



ans for the camp of the hostiles. He found these near the 
junction of the Powder and Yellowstone rivers. He was 
received joyfully by them and here on June 21st he held a 

great council with 5,000 
hostile Sioux. Father De 
Smet was given a seat in 
the center near the two 
head chiefs, Four Horns 
and Black Moon. His 
large white banner of 
peace was placed beside 
him. His own account 
says: 

''The council was 
opened with songs and 
dances, noisy, joyful and 
very wild, in which the 
warriors alone took part. Then Four Horns lighted his 
calumet of peace; he presented it first solemnly to the Great 
Spirit, imploring his light and favor, and then offered it to 
the four cardinal points, to the sun and the earth, as wit- 
nesses to the action of the council. Then he himself passed 
the calumet from mouth to mouth. I was the first to 
receive it, with my interpreter, and every chief was placed 
according to the rank that he held in the tribe. Each one 
took a few puffs. When the ceremony of the calumet was 
finished, the head chief addressed me, saying, ' Speak, Black- 
robe, my ears are open to hear your words." 

The white haired missionary was then sixty-seven 3^ears 
old, with a face calm, mild and peaceful, which all loved to 
look upon. He spoke to the fierce Indians as to children, 
told them the terms of peace he brought them and pointed 
out the danger and folly of fighting the white man. At the 
close of his speech Chief Black Moon said: 

''We understand the words the Black-robe has spoken. 
They are good and full of truth. This land is ours. Here 



FATHER DeSMET 81 

our fathers were born and are buried. We wish, like them, 
to hve and to be buried here. We have been forced to hate 
the whites. Let them treat us like brothers and the war will 
cease. Let them stay at home. We will never go to trouble 
of 7b J 7; Messenger of Peace, hast given us a glimpse 
of a better future. Let us throw a veil over the past and let 
^ be forgotten. Some of our warriors will go with you to 
Fort Rice to hear the words of the Great Father's commis- 
sioners. If they are acceptable peace shall be made " 
.reJt r*?"* chiefs spoke in the same spirit and the second 
great treaty of Fort Laramie, that of 1868, was concluded. 

de Jh tt\?' fr\ "^'"^ ^^^^- ^^' ^^^3, at St. Louis. In his 
death the West ost a great missionary and explorer, and the 
Indians lost their best friend. 

QUESTIONS 

'• " truel'5ebrS.°^ ''"^*'^ P^°P''->'' -yarding Europe's poor, become 
I: ^^^S^S^!^'}^^^^ ^ ^f-ee ove. the Indian.. 



JOHN C. FREMONT 



ONE of the most noted names in the story of the West is 
that of John C. Fremont. He was sometimes called 
^'The Pathfinder." Many years of his life were spent in 
exploring the plains and the mountains. He first became 
famous as leader of an exploring expedition which crossed 
Nebraska in 1842. Starting June 10th from the mouth of 

the Kansas River, he followed the 
Oregon Trail to the forks of the 
Platte. Here his party divided, 
one party going by way of the North 
Platte, the other by way of the 
South Platte, both meeting at Fort 
Laramie. From there Fremont fol- 
lowed the Oregon Trail to the South 
Pass and on August loth climbed 
to the top of what has since been 
called Fremont 's Peak at the sum- 
mit of the Rocky Mountains. 
Coming down the Platte river in boats, Fremont 's party 
was wrecked in the great canyon of the Platte near where Cas- 
per, Wyoming, is located. Saving what they could they 
followed the Platte valley and reached the trading post of 
Peter A. Sarpy at Bellevue on October 1st. 

The next year on May 29th Fremont left the mouth of the 
Kansas River and took a more southerly route through north- 
ern Kansas, and on June 25th crossed into Nebraska in what 
is now Hitchcock County. After following the Republican 
valley for some days, he crossed to the South Platte and 
thence over the mountains to Salt Lake and California. 

Fremont saw the great future of the West more clearly 
than other explorers. He saw in Nebraska the rich soil, the 

82 




John C. Fremont 



JOHN C. FREMONT 83 

abundant grass and the beautiful wild flowers. To his eyes 
this region looked like a garden, instead of a desert, as it had 
been represented by many. 

Nebraska probably owes its name to Fremont. In his 
report to the secretary of war, he calls our great central river 
by its Indian name Nebraska, or Flat Water, and the secre- 
tary of war afterwards suggested Nebraska as a good name 
for the new territory. 

Fremont believed in the future Pacific Railroad and tried 
to find an easy, natural route on which it might be built. He 
became senator from the new state of California in 1850, and 
candidate for President in 1856. He died July 13, 1890, hav- 
ing lived to see the western wilderness which he had explored 
filled with millions of people, great cities built on the plains 
and in the mountains and several Pacific railroads where he 
had dreamed of one. 

One of the most thriving cities of Nebraska proudly bears 
Fremont 's name. The great United States dam at the can- 
yon of the Platte River where Fremont and his party were 
wrecked in 1842 is called ^The Pathfinder, " and great canals 
from its mighty reservoir carry the waters from the Rocky 
Mountains far out on the plains of western Nebraska, making 
them blossom everywhere in memory of this great explorer 
who had confidence in the development of the West. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What did Fremont do for Nebraska? 

2. Why did he see the future of this region more truly than other explorers? 

3. Can you show that what we see in things reveals what we ourselves are? 

4. Are you glad that our State was named Nebraska? Why? 




"i 



THE OVERLAND TRAILS 

EACH of the old overland trails which crosses Nebraska 
from the Missouri River to the mountains has a story. 
It is a story written deep in the lives of men and women, and 
in the record of the westward march of the American people. 
The story of these overland trails was also written in broad 
deep furrows across our prairies. Along these trails journeyed 
thousands of men, women and children with ox teams, carts, 
wheelbarrows, and on foot, to settle the great country be- 
yond. Over them marched the soldiers who built forts to 
protect the settlers. Then the long freighting trains loaded 
with food, tools and clothing passed that way. So there 
came to be great beaten thoroughfares one or two hundred 
feet wide, deeply cut in the earth by the wheels of wagons 
and the feet of pilgrims. 

The Oregon Trail was the first and most famous of these 
in Nebraska. It started from the Missouri River at Independ- 
ence, Missouri, ran across the northeast corner of Kansas 
and entered Nebraska near the point where Gage and Jeffer- 
son counties meet on the Nebraska-Kansas line. It followed 
the course of the Little Blue River across Jefferson, Thayer, 
Nuckolls, Clay and Adams counties, then across the divide 
to the Platte near the head of Grand Island in Hall County, 
then along the south side of the Platte through Kearney, 
Phelps, Gosper, and Dawson, to a point in Keith county 
about seven miles east of Big Springs, where it crossed the 
South Platte and continued up the south side of the North 
Platte through Keith, Garden, Morrill and Scotts Bluff 
counties, where it passed out of Nebraska into Wyoming. 

The beginnings of the Oregon Trail in Nebraska were 
made in 1813 by the little band of returning Astorians as 
they, leading their one poor horse, tramped their weary way 

85 



86 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



down the Platte valley to the Otoe village where they took 
canoes for their journey down the river. These first Oregon 
Trailers left no track deep enough to be followed. They 
simply made known the way. After them fur traders on 
horseback and afoot followed nearly the same route. On 
April 10, 1830, Milton Sublette with ten wagons and one 
milch cow left St. Louis, and arrived at the Wind River 
Mountains on July 16th. They returned to St. Louis the 
same summer, bringing back ten wagons loaded with furs and 
the faithful cow w^hich furnished milk all the way. Theirs 
were the first wagon wheels on the Oregon Trail across Ne- 
braska. The .track they made from the mouth of the Kansas 
river up the valley of the Little Blue and up the south side of 
the Platte and North Platte was followed by others, and thus 
became the historic trail. Their famous cow, and the old 
horse which seventeen years before carried the burdens for 
the Astorians are entitled to a high place among the pioneers 
of the West. 

In 1832, Captain Bonneville, whose story is told by Wash- 
ington Irving, followed over Sublette's trail from the Mis- 
souri River to the mountains. In the same year Nathaniel 

J. Wyeth following the 
same trail pushed 
through the South Pass 
in the mountains and 
on to Oregon, thus mak- 
ing an open road from 
the Missouri River to 
the Pacific Ocean. With 
slight changes, this road 
remained the Oregon 
Trail through the years of overland travel. Every spring in 
May the long emigrant wagon trains left the Missouri River 
and arrived on the Pacific coast in November. It was a won- 
derful trip. Every day the train moved fifteen or twenty 
miles. Every night it camped. Every day there were new 




Old Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail 



THE OVERLAND TRAILS 87 

scenes and events. New friends were found among the 
travelers. Children were born on the way. There were 
weddings and funerals. It was a great traveling city mov- 
ing two thousand miles, from the river to the ocean. 

There are five periods in the story of the Oregon Trail. 
The first was the period of finding the way and breaking the 
trail and extends from the return of the Astorians in 1813 to 
the Wyeth wagons in 1832. The second period was that of 
the early Oregon migration and extends from 1832 to the 
discovery of gold in California in 1849. The third period 
was that of the rush for gold and extends from 1849 to 1860. 
During this period the Oregon Trail became the greatest 
traveled highway in the world, wider and more beaten than 
a city street and hundreds of thousands passed over it. The 
fourth period is that of the decline of the Oregon Trail and 
extends from 1860 to 1869. The fifth period, from 1869 to 
the present day, is witnessing its gradual effacement. 

The best brief description of the Oregon Trail is that of 
Father De Smet, who knew it well and tells of its appearance 
when first seen by him and his party of Indians from the 
Upper Missouri in 1851 : 

''Our Indian companions, who had never seen but the 
narrow hunting paths by which they transport themselves 
and their lodges, were filled with admiration on seeing this 
noble highway, which is as smooth as a barn floor swept by 
the winds, and not a blade of grass can shoot up on it on 
account of the continual passing. They conceived a high 
idea of the countless white nations. They fancied that all 
had gone over that road and that an immense void must 
exist in the land of the rising sun. They styled the route the 
'Great Medicine Road of the Whites.' '' 

In another place Father De Smet tells of the great govern- 
ment wagon trains he met on the Oregon Trail in 1858: 

"Each train consisted of twenty-six wagons, each wagon 
drawn by six yoke of oxen. The trains made a line fifty 
miles long. Each wagon is marked with a name as in the 



88 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

case of ships, and these names served to furnish amusement 
to the passers-by. Such names as The Constitution, The 
President, The Great RepubUc, The King of Bavaria, Louis 
Napoleon, Dan O'Connell, Old Kentuck, were daubed in 
great letters on each side of the carriage. On the plains the 
wagoner assumes the style of Captain, being placed in com- 
mand of his wagon and twelve oxen. The master wagoner is 
admiral of this little land fleet of 26 captains and 312 oxen. 
At a distance the white awnings of the wagons have the effect 
of a fleet of vessels with all canvas spread." 

The second important trail across Nebraska is the one 




iiS^^*C^. 






Emigrant Train Crossinct the Plains 

which started from the banks of the Missouri River near 
Bellevue and Florence, followed up the north side of the 
Platte and North Platte to Fort Laramie, where it joined the 
older Oregon Trail. This was the route across Nebraska of 
the returning Astorians in 1813 and some of the early fur 
traders. The Mormons made this a wagon road in 1847 
when their great company which wintered at Florence and 
Bellevue took this way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. 
It was often called the Mormon Trail. Some of the immi- 
grants to Oregon and California went over this route and 
hence it is sometimes called the Oregon Trail or California 
Trail. There was less travel on this trail than on the one 



THE OVERLAND TRAILS 



89 



a 


■ ^ f-^-; '■ 


« 




y 


I " "" "•'»«.„ 




•^j^W^ 


«*^-^ 


""^TBm 


f 


i^ 






L 


_|-l;'-i^ 



Ezra Meeker and his Oregon Trail 
Wagon 



south of the Platte because there was more sand here. This 
north side trail ran through the counties of Douglas, Sarpy, 
Dodge, Colfax, Platte, Merrick, Hall, Buffalo, Dawson, 
Lincoln, Garden, Morrill 
and Scotts Bluff. 

The third celebrated 
trail across Nebraska 
was from the Missouri 
River to Denver and 
was called the Denver 
Trail. It had many 
branches between the 
Missouri River and Fort 
Kearny. Near this 
point they united and 
followed up the south bank of the Platte to Denver. The 
route from Omaha to Denver was up the north bank of the 
Platte to Shinn 's ferry in Butler County where it crossed to 
the south side and continued up the river to Fort Kearny. 
There was also a road from Nebraska City up the south 
bank of the Platte, which was joined by the Omaha road 

after it crossed the river. 
It was called the Fort 
Kearny and Nebraska 
City Road. A new and 
more direct road was laid 
out in 1860 from Ne- 
braska City west 
through the counties of 
Otoe, Lancaster, Seward, 
York, Hall and Kearney. 
This was the shortest 
and best road to Denver. 
It was called the Nebraska City Cut-off. It became very 
popular and during the years from 1862 to 1869 was trav- 
eled by thousands of immigrants and freighters. Over the 




Oregon Trail Monument at Kearney 



90 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

Denver Trail went the Pike's Peak immigrants and the 
supphes and machinery for opening the mines in Colorado. 

After a few years the mail and stage coach and pony ex- 
press followed the immigrant and freight w^agons along the 
Overland Trails. In 1850 the first monthly mail coaches 
began running from the Missouri River to Salt Lake and 
California. The hard winter of 1856-57 blocked this route 
for several months. The California mail coach was then 
placed on a southern route through Arizona but with the 
breaking out of the Civil War it was brought north again and 
in 1861 the first daily overland mail began running from the 
Missouri River to California. This mail at first started from 
St. Joseph. After a few months it ran from Atchison, join- 
ing the Oregon Trail a few miles south of the Nebraska state 
line and following it as far as the crossing of the South Platte 
near Julesburg, where it diverged making a new road, called 
the Central Route, through the mountains to Salt Lake City. 
This was said to be the greatest stage line in the world. 
From 1861 to 1866 daily coaches ran both ways except for a 
few months during the Indian war in 1864. Over this line 
also ran the pony express beginning April 3, 1860, and con- 
tinuing for eighteen months until the completion of the tele- 
graph line to San Francisco. 

The pony express was a man on horseback carrying a 
mail bag and riding as fast as the horse could run. As the 
horse and man, covered with dust and foam, dashed into a 
station another man on horseback snatched the bag and 
raced to the next station. So the bag of letters and dis- 
patches rushed day and night across the plains and moun- 
tains from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The 
quickest time ever made by the pony express was in March, 
1861, when President Lincoln's inaugural address was car- 
ried from St. Joseph to Sacramento, 1980 miles, in seven days 
and seventeen hours. 

The old overland trails fell out of use with the comple- 
tion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869. Short stretches 



THE OVERLAND TRAILS 



91 



from one settlement to another were used as roads but 
they were no longer the great highways of travel. 
The sunflower and tumble weed 
settled in their furrows and for many 
years these trails could be traced 
across Nebraska prairies by a wide 
ribbon. With passing years the break- 
ing plow ran its furrows across the 
furrows of the wagon wheels and the 
harrow and cultivator smoothed away 
their wrinkles until over a large part 
of our state the old overland trails 
can be traced only by the records of 
the early surveyors and the recollec- 
tions of the few old-timers. In the 
far western part of Nebraska, and 
especially along the course of ^.he Ore- 
gon Trail on the south side of the 
North Platte, the old wagon tracks 
still remain and the long ribbons of 
sunflowers still trace the routes of the 
old trails across our country. 




Stone Marking Oregon 

Trail in Nebraska. 

{From photograph by 

Roy Hindmarsh.) 



QUESTIONS 



1. 



How is the best route for a road in a new country found? Will it keep 

near the streams or on the high land? 
What differences in crossing from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean 

in the days of the Oregon trail and now? 
Do the lines of railroad follow the overland trails in Nebraska? Why? 
Can you find any traces of the early roads in your county? 



LONE TREE 



LONE TREE was a solitary cottonwood standing on the 
north side of ^ the Platte river about three miles south- 
west from where Central City now is. Its massive trunk, 
ten or twelve feet in circumference at the base, rose like a 
column fifty feet in the air and was crowned with spreading 
branches which in summer cast a grateful shade. It was a 
landmark which could be seen for twenty miles across the 
level Platte valley, and the early traveler, viewing it afar off, 
hastened to enjoy its protection and shade. 

The Indians knew the tree and named it long before the 
white men came. The legend is that their chiefs held coun- 
cil within its shade. The first white traveler up the Platte 
must have noticed it. The overland trail on the north side 
of the Platte ran within a few yards of the tree. The great 
emigrant trains made a camping ground near it and hundreds 

of those who passed that 
way carved their names 
in its tough bark, climb- 
ing higher each year to 
find room for new names 
and initials, until its rug- 
ged trunk was covered 
to the height of thirty 
feet with these inscrip- 
tions. Lone Tree ranch 
was established in 1858 
Lone Tree Monument. {From photo- at a little distance from 
graph by A. E. Sheldon.) the tree. Later the post 

office there and the Union Pacific station three miles 
away each bore its name. In 1865 a great storm laid 
the old landmark low, its strength having been sapped by 

92 




LONE TREE 93 

the hundreds of sharp knives which carved its bark. Part 
of its trunk was taken to Lone Tree station, now called 
Central City. Here it stood on the depot platform until it 
was nearly all carried away in fragments by tourists. 

Thousands of travelers from the East and the West who 
crossed the plains in the early days keep the old tree in their' 
memories, and the early pioneers in the Platte valley remem- 
ber it as a rare old friend. Though the old tree decayed un- 
til even its stump is gone, it still remains in the minds and 
hearts of the people who were gladdened by it as it stood, 
solitary and majestic, by the long, hard, lonely trail in those 
far away days. 

In the year 1911 the people of Merrick County, through 
their county board, voted the money to place a stone monu- 
ment made in the likeness of a cottonwood stump in the place 
where the Lone Tree once stood. There it stands to-day 
in perpetual witness to the worth of a tree. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Do you know any lone tree? Are you fond of it? Why? 

2. What makes us Hke especially well the lone tree of this story? 

3. Were those who cut names in its bark kind to this splendid tree? Why? 



LOGAN FONTENELLE 



WHEN the white men first came to Nebraska to Hve, a 
hundred years ago, they found Indians everywhere. 
The Omaha Indians hved a httle way from where the city of 
Omaha is located. One of the white men named Lucien 
Fontenelle, who came up the river from St. Louis to hunt and 
trade with the Indians for furs, built a log cabin on the bank 
of the Missouri River near the Omaha Indian village. He 
hunted and traded many years. He visited with the Omaha 
Indians very often and after a time he took an Omaha girl 
for his wife. They lived for many years more in the log 
cabin near the river bank. They had four children, who 
grew up tall and strong and spoke two languages — one the 
Indian language which their mother knew and the other the 

French language, for their 

father was a Frenchman. They 

played all the summer long 

under the shade of the great 

trees which grew on the bank 

of the big river. Sometimes 

they went with their mother 's 

Indian people away across the 

prairies to hunt buffalo. Such 

sport as they had on these 

hunts ! In the fall they always 

came back to their home in 

the log cabin by the big river. 

One of the boys was named 

Logan by his father. He grew 

to be a very brave • and handsome boy. He learned to 

speak English besides French and Omaha. WTien one of 

the old chiefs died, Logan, who was then a very young man, 

S4 




Logan Fontenelle 



LOGAN FONTENELLE 



95 



was made chief in his place. He was the first Indian chief 
in our state who could talk with the white men just as well 
as a white man and with the Indians just as well as an Indian. 

In 1854 when more white men began to come across the 
big river and wanted to buy part of the Indian land, Logan 
went to Washington with the other Indian chiefs, who were 
not able to talk in the white man 's tongue, and helped them 
to get as much for their land as they could. 

The Omaha Indians and the white men were always at 
peace, but there was war between the Sioux and the Omahas. 

In the summer of 1855 the Omaha Indians left their vil- 
lage by the big river to go out west to hunt buffalo. They 
went along the Elkhorn River for two or three days and then 
crossed the prairie toward the Platte. They were in what 
is now Boone County when the Sioux Indians suddenly 
came over the hills to fight. Then the Omaha women and 
children ran back to the camp as fast as they could, while 
Logan and several other Omaha Indians went out to fight 
the Sioux. Logan had a fine, new double-barreled rifle of 
which he was very proud. It would shoot a great deal farther 
than any other gun in the Omaha tribe. The Sioux had not 
seen a rifle that shot 
twice without loading 
and so were much sur- 
prised when they found 
what Logan 's gun would 
do. Perhaps this is 
what cost Logan his life. 
He rode boldly out to- 
ward the Sioux and when 
they charged him he did 
not retreat but kept on 
shooting. Five or six of 
them mounted on their ponies made a rush at him. He 
killed three but the others came on and shot and scalped him. 

Then there was great sorrow in the camp of the Omahas. 




Site of Fontenelle's Grave near Belle- 
VUE. {From photograph hij A.E. Sheldon.) 



96 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

They gave up their buffalo hunt and sewed the body of Lo- 
gan in an elk skin and brought it on two ponies all the way 
back to the Missouri River. On the top of a little hill be- 
tween Omaha and Bellevue, from which one can look a long 
way up and down the river, they dug a grave and buried him. 
All the white men came to the funeral and were sad. All the 
Indians cried and mourned for many days. His grave is 
near the little tree which you can see in the picture. 

QUESTIONS 

1 . Can you find any part of Logan Fontenelle's name on the map of Nebraska? 

2. Do you think Logan Fontenelle was more white man than Indian? Why? 

3. Should the grave of Logan Fontenelle have a monument? 



THE MORMON COW 

IN the early days the Sioux Indians of the plains were firm 
friends of the white people. The first traders among 
them were welcomed as brothers. They left their goods 
piled m the open air in Sioux villages and found them safe on 
their return. The white men who made the first trails 
across Nebraska often found food and shelter with the Sioux. 
The early emigrant trail wound for four hundred miles 
through the heart of the Sioux country. Over it went white 
men, singly and in companies, with ox-wagons, on foot, and 
pushing wheelbarrows and no harm came to them from the 
Sioux. 

All this was changed in a single day. The Sioux became 
the fierce and bloody foes of the white men. War with the 
Sioux nation lasted thirty years. It cost thousands of lives 
and millions of dollars. The beginning of this bloody war 
was caused by a lame Mormon cow. 

On the 17th of August, 1854, a party of Mormon emi- 
grants on their way to Great Salt Lake were toiling along the 
Oregon Trail in the valley of the North Platte. They were 
in what was then Nebraska Territory, but is now about forty 
miles beyond the Nebraska state Hne and eight miles east of 
Fort Laramie, Wyoming. A great camp of thousands of 
Indians stretched for miles along the overland trail. They 
were the Brule, Oglala and Minneconjou bands — the whole 
Sioux nation on the plains — and were gathered to receive 
the goods which the United States had promised to pay them 
for the road through their land. 

Behind the train of Mormon wagons lagged a lame cow 
driven by a man. When near the Brule Sioux camp some- 
thing scared the cow. She left the road and ran directly 
into the Sioux camp. The man ran after her, but stopped 



98 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

after a few steps, fearing to follow her alone into a camp of so 
many Indians. He turned back to the overland trail and 
followed after the wagons, leaving the lame cow to visit the 
Sioux. 

In the Brule camp was a young Sioux from the Minnecon- 
jou, or Shoot ers-in-the-Mist, band. These were wilder than 
the other Sioux. The young Minneconjou killed the lame 
cow and his friends helped to eat her. 

The next day the Mormon emigrants stopped at Fort 
Laramie and complained to the commander there that they 
had lost their cow. On the morning of August 19th, Lieu- 
tenant Grattan and twenty-nine men with two cannon were 
sent from the fort to the Brule camp after the young Indian 
who had killed the cow. Lieutenant Grattan was a young 
man from Vermont, barely twenty-one years old, who had no 
experience with Indians. 

The great chief among the Sioux at that time was named 
The Bear. He had a talk with the lieutenant and said he 
would try to get the young Minneconjou to give himself up. 
It was a great disgrace for a free Indian of the plains to be 
taken to prison and the friends of the cow-killer would not 
let him go. The Bear then tried to have Lieutenant Grattan 
go back to the fort and let him bring in the young Minnecon- 
jou later. The lieutenant ordered his soldiers to run the two 
cannon to the top of a little mound, to point them on the 
Brule camp and told The Bear that he would open fire if the 
cow-killer was not given up at once. Pointing to the thou- 
sands of Indians, men, women and children, who were spread 
over the valley as far as eye could see. The Bear said, ^^ These 
are all my people. Young man you must be crazy," and 
walked toward his lodge, while his warriors began to get their 
guns and bows. A moment later the two cannon and a 
volley of muskets were fired at the Sioux camp. The Bear 
was killed. A storm of Sioux bullets and arrows cut down 
Lieutenant Grattan and his men before they had time to 
reload their guns. 



THE MORMON COW 



99 



The Sioux camp went wild. The death of The Bear, the 
taste of white man's blood, set them crazy. Warriors mount- 
ed their ponies and rode about the field. The squaws tore 
down the tepees and packed them for flight. Some one 
called out to the Indians to take their goods which were in a 
storehouse near a trader's post waiting for the United States 




Mound Marking the Bttrial Place of Lieutenant Grattan 
AND His Men 



officer who was coming to distribute them. The Sioux burst 
into the storehouse, tumbled the goods from the shelves, 
piled them on their ponies. Before sundown the Indians 
were riding over the northern ridges by thousands, carrying 
away their plunder. They buried The Bear wrapped in 
richest buffalo robes in a high pine tree near the Niobrara 
River. From this burial the bands scattered over Nebraska, 
Wyoming and Dakota, urging Indians everywhere to kill 
the white men and to drive them from the country. Thus 
the Sioux war began. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Ought the Indians to have given up the cow-killer? 

2. What should Lieutenant Grattan have done? 

3. Were the Indians or the white men to blame for the Sioux war? 



SLAVERY IN NEBRASKA 

THE South and North fell out over slavery in the new 
land of the West. The people of the South wanted the 
right to go west and take their slaves with them. The people 
of the North wanted none but free people in the West. In 
1820 the North and South agreed that Missouri might be a 
slave state, but that there should be no slaves in what is 
now Nebraska and Kansas. This was called the Missouri 
Compromise. No one then lived in Nebraska but Indians 
and a few traders, trappers and soldiers. When it was time 
for Nebraska to be settled and to have a government there 
was another fierce falling out between the South and the 
North over slavery. This time a law was passed to the 
effect that the new land should be slave or free as the 
settlers voted. 

In Nebraska the people never voted for slavery, but 
people coming here from the South brought slaves with them. 
In 1855 there were thirteen slaves in Nebraska and in 1860 
there were ten. Most of these were held at Nebraska City. 

Across the Missouri River at Tabor, Iowa, was a settle- 
ment of people called abolitionists, because they wished to 
abolish slavery. The ''Underground Railroad" was the 
name given to the road taken by slaves from the South on 
their way through the North to Canada, where they were free. 
One branch of this road ran from Missouri through the cor- 
ner of Nebraska by way of Falls City, Little Nemaha, Camp 
Creek and Nebraska City to Tabor. The runaway slaves 
traveled at night along this road and were fed and hidden 
during the day by friends. At Falls City they were kept in 
a barn. John Brown came through this corner of Nebraska 
very often with slaves from Missouri whom he was helping 
to set free. He is the man of whom we sing 

100 



SLAVERY IN NEBRASKA 101 

''John Brown's body lies a-mould 'ring in the grave, 
His soul is marching on!" 

In November, 1858, Eliza, a slave girl owned by Mr. S. F. 
Nuckolls at Nebraska City, ran away, and with her another 
slave girl. Mr. Nuckolls (after whom Nuckolls County was 



1.. 






Tj 




J 


„., ,y,./.. --•>„,-./. V ,../,.,/, A,. ^.A 4 




J //,.. //. 


' J^...^' A 


- #'V-- ■^'-r'^'-M- 


^-,/, 1 














^ 


t y^/. 


/ ^ '' 


"0.^ ,.. // <-'*^ 'I 


* 




/ '^ 


y^/ ..^/u^^-irij i^!f> ^^^^'^■'^4% 


^^-=*^ 







Act Abolishing Slavery in Nebraska. {Photo from original in Statehouse.) 

named) was very angry and offered $200 reward. With the 
aid of the United States marshal he began a search of the 
houses at Tabor for his slaves. The girls were not there, but 
one man whose house was being searched was struck on the 
head by an officer and badly wounded. For this Mr. 
Nuckolls had to pay S10,000 damages. EHza escaped to 



102 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

Chicago, where she was arrested the next year and was about 
to be returned to her master when a mob rescued her and 
she was hurried over to Canada. Mr. Nuckolls sued sixteen 
Iowa people for helping Eliza to escape, but the war soon 
came on and he did not win his suit. 

The few slaves in Nebraska were hard to hold. On June 
30, 1860, six slaves owned by Alexander Majors at Nebraska 
City ran away and never came back. On December 5, 1860, 
the sheriff of Otoe County sold at auction in the streets of 
Nebraska City one negro man and one negro woman, known 
as Hercules and Martha. This was the last of slavery in 
Nebraska, for in January, 1861, the legislature passed an act 
abolishing slavery in the territory and President Abraham 
Lincoln made proclamation, January 1, 1863, that all 
slaves in the United States were free. 

1. If the land in Nebraska belonged equally to all the United States which 

was right regarding its use, the South or the North? 

2. Was it right for the northern people to help slaves to run away from their 

masters? 

3. Would Nebraska to-day be a slave state if the southern people had been 

freely allowed to bring slaves here? 



THE SURVEYORS 



THE first settlers in Nebraska found no corners nor lines 
marking the limits of their land. The early Indian 
traders, like Manuel Lisa and Henry Fontenelle, built their 
cabins and put in their crops wherever it pleased them, for 
all land lay open to their use. The early territorial pioneer 
of 1854 and 1855 staked out his own land, claiming what 
suited him best, and put 
up signs telhng all who 
came that way what he 
claimed. 

The first Nebraska 
surveyor was Rev. Isaac 
McCoy, a Baptist mis- 
sionary who, in 1837, 
surveyed a line across 
the southeast corner of 
the state from the Little 
Nemaha River to the 
Great Nemaha River in 
what is now Richardson 
County. The land be- 
tween this line and the 
Missouri River was 
called the Half Breed 
Strip. It was to be the 
home of those who were 
part white and part In- 
dian. In later years there were many disputes over the 
location of this first Nebraska survey. 

Surveyors were needed as soon as Nebraska became a 
territory to divide the land into blocks marked with perma- 

103 




Map Showing First Plan for Nebraska 

Survey 1854. {Drawing by Miss 

Martha Turner.) 



104 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

nent corners, so that each settler might know just where his 
land lay and the whole country might be made easy to map 
and easy to describe. The regular permanent survey of 
Nebraska into square blocks of land for people 's homes be- 
gan in November, 1854. First a base line was measured 
west from the Missouri River 108 miles, with corner posts 
marking each mile. This line was ordered to be exactly on 
the 40th degree of latitude north from the equator, the divid- 
ing line between Nebraska and Kansas, but the first surveyor 
did not know his business and the line was crooked, some- 
times on one side of the 40th degree and sometimes on the 
other. So the next year this base line had to be re-surveyed, 
the first corners torn out and new ones put in. This new 
survey was made by Mr. Charles A. Manners. With the help 
of Captain Thomas J. Lee of the United States Army and the 
best instruments obtainable, very careful observations were 
made of the sun and the stars in order to find where the 40th 
degree of latitude fell on the west bank of the Missouri River. 
On this spot, on May 8, 1855, the surveyors put up a tall 
iron monument with the word '^Nebraska" on one side and 
''Kansas " on the opposite side. This monument stands to- 
day on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri valley and is 
the starting point of all the Nebraska surveys. 

From this iron monument the base line was surveyed due 
west 108 miles. At this point another monument was put 
up. The line surveyed due north from here is called the 
sixth principal meridian of the United States surveys and is 
the ''naming line" of all the land in Nebraska, for all deeds 
and patents to Nebraska land mention it. This line forms 
the western boundary of Jefferson, Saline, Seward, Butler, 
Colfax, Stanton and Wayne counties and extends through 
Cedar County to the northern boundary of the state. 

The orders for the survey of Nebraska called for a division 
of the land into blocks six miles square called townships. 
Each township was divided into blocks one mile square called 
sections. All the townships in Nebraska are numbered, be- 



THE SURVEYORS 



105 



ginning with number one at the base line and ending with 
number thirty-five at the northern boundary. Each row of 
townships stretching across the state from south to north 
is called a range. The ranges are 
counted from the sixth principal 
meridian, the first range of townships 
east being called range one east, the 
first range west being called range 
one west and so on. There are nine- 
teen ranges east and fifty-nine ranges 
west in Nebraska. 

At distances forty-eight miles east 
and west from the sixth principal 
meridian guide meridians were laid 
off. This was necessary because 
the surface of the earth is curved in- 
stead of flat. If you will take a ball 
and lay off its surface into square 
blocks of uniform size, as the survey- 
ors laid off the surface of the earth, 
you will see why these guide merid- 
ians were needed. In a similar 
way standard parallels were run at 
each interval of twenty-four miles north from the base line. 
The surveyors made the survey by running a line due north 
from the base line twenty-four miles, then due east forty- 
eight miles to the meridian. The block of land thus laid off 
was subdivided into townships and sections by marking the 
corners of each township and each section with stakes or 
stones set in a mound of earth and four holes dug so as to 
form a square figure with the mound in the center. In 
pioneer times, the gray wolf or the coyote sitting upon one of 
these mounds would howl through the long hours of the 
night. On the section line half-way between the section 
corners was placed what is called a ''Quarter Stake," 

Beginning thus in the southeast corner of the state, the 




Nebraska-Kansas Monu- 
ment, Starting Point of 
Nebraska Surveys. 
(Drawing by Miss Martha 

Turner.) 



g'} Standard Parallel 

N. 32 



tJ Standard Parallel 

^f 28 



b'.^Standard Parallel 

N. 2A 




BASE LWE 



X zr xz xm lay sy xa jsn xsm 



106 



THE SURVEYORS 107 

surveys were each year pushed a Httle farther west and 
north, in the direction most Ukely to be taken by the settlers 
as they came in, until all the state was surveyed. The last 
survey thus made was the ^' Gates of Sheridan" reservation 
in Sheridan County, which was finished in 1910, fifty-six years 
after the first survey was made. 

Each surveying party kept a book called a field notebook 
in which was to be written down each day the distances 
measured, a description of the surface of the country, all 
prominent natural objects seen, the quality of the land, the 
corners marked and how they were marked, in a word the 
entire story of things done and seen each day. From these 
field notes maps were made, showing all the streams, hills, 
valleys, smooth and rough land, and copies of these maps were 
kept at the land offices where the settlers went to file their 
claims upon land. Some of the surveys were dishonestly 
made, the corners not marked as required by law and the 
field notes not truthfully kept, so that settlers in some cases 
lost their homes or located on the wrong piece of land or were 
unable to find the government corners. 

Great dangers and hardships were braved by the pioneer 
surveyors. The Indians everywhere understood when they 
saw the surveying parties making mounds, driving stakes 
and digging holes, that the white men were coming to take 
their land. In many cases they pulled up their stakes, tore 
down the mounds and drove off the surveyors. Great 
storms swept down upon the surveyors living in tents, and 
men and horses were frozen to death. Fever and ague was 
common in the surveying camps. In surveying the islands 
of the Platte River the men waded through water for w^eeks. 
Upon the high plains of western Nebraska they were tortured 
with thirst. Mosquitoes, gnats and green-headed flies 
pursued them, eager for blood by day and by night. Some- 
times the Indians set fire to the prairie and drove the survey- 
ing parties in because their horses found no grass to eat. 
The saddest day in all the surveys of Nebraska was August 



108 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



20, 1869, when a band of Sioux Indians undfer Pawnee Killer 
and Whistler attacked the Nelson Buck surveying party of 
ten men in the Republican Valley and killed the entire 

party. There was not a 
single season from 1863 un- * 
til 1877 when the surveyors 
did not have to fight the 
Indians, and for many years 
later all surveying parties 
carried rifles along with 
their instruments and often 
saved their lives thereby. 

The United States sur- 
veys of Nebraska are ended. 
All the field notebooks and 
the township maps of the 
surveys are turned over to 
the State of Nebraska and 
kept in a fireproof vault by 
the state surveyor in the 
Capitol building. The let- 
ters written by the survey- 
ors in the field, telling the 
story of their trials and dan- 
gers are there bound in vol- 
umes for future Nebraskans to read. All the titles to all the 
lands and lots in Nebraska rest finally upon the record of 
these surveys. Land in Nebraska grows more valuable from 
year to year and these records are called for so that surveyors 
to-day may follow the field notes of these first surveyors, re- 
trace their lines and locate the true corners where land is in 
dispute. So long as men live and occupy the land, so long 
will the surveys of Nebraska and their records be of vital 
importance. 




Robert Harvey, an Early Surveyor, 

AND Outfit. (From photograph 

collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 



THE SURVEYORS 109 



QUESTIONS 

1. What are the numbers of the land where you Hve and how do you know? 

2. Find all the government corners in the section where you live and tell 

how they are marked? Are the marks you find the ones put there by 
the United States surveyors? 

3. How do surveyors to-day retrace the work of the first United States sur- 

veyors and settle disputes over land? 



THE FIRST HOMESTEAD 

THE free homestead law has been called the most impor- 
tant act for the welfare of the people ever passed in the 
United States. Under this law any man or woman twenty- 
one years old or the head of a family can have 160 acres of 
land by living on it five years and paying about eighteen 
dollars in fees. For the first eighty years of United States 
history there were no free homesteads. The settlers were 
obliged to buy their land. The price was low but they were 
often very poor and in many cases lost their land after living 
upon and improving it because they had no money to pay 
for it. 

In 1852 a party, called the Free Soil party, demanded free 
homesteads for the people. In 1854 the first free homestead 
bill was introduced in Congress by Congressman Galusha A. 
Grow of Pennsylvania. The people of the West and poor 
people everywhere were in favor of the bill. There was 
strong opposition to it, however. The first homestead act 
required the settler to pay twenty-five cents an acre for his 
land and was passed in 1860. This bill was vetoed by Presi- 
dent Buchanan. It was not until May 20, 1862, that the 
free homestead act was finally passed and signed by Presi- 
dent Abraham Lincoln. The law took effect on January 1, 
1863. 

The first free homestead in the United States was taken 
by Daniel Freeman on Cub Creek in Gage County, Nebras- 
ka, about five miles northwest of Beatrice. Daniel Freeman 
was born in Ohio in 1S26, and moved with his parents to 
Illinois in 1835. He was intensely interested in the free 
homestead bill from the time it was first introduced in Con- 
gress. Year after year he watched its progress and hoped 
for its passage and many times said that he wished to be the 

110 



THE FIRST HOMESTEAD 



111 




first man to take a homestead. When the free homestead 
bill was signed Daniel Freeman was a soldier in the Union 
army. A few months later he was given a brief furlough and 
came to Nebraska to look over the 
beautiful country, then lying va- 
cant, for a home. He found the 
place that suited him and started 
for the nearest United States land 
office, which was then at Brown- 
ville, Nebraska, arriving there De- 
cember 31, 1862. The little town 
was thronged with settlers who had 
come there to take land. That night 
there was a New Year's Eve party 
at the hotel, which was attended by 
all. The new homestead act was to 
go into effect the next day but as 
New Year's was a holiday the land 
office would not be open until Jan- 
uary 2d. Mr. Freeman was under 
orders to join his regiment and expected to leave the next 
day. He told his story and his great desire to be the first 
homesteader in the United States. All the others agreed 
that he should have the first chance and with him per- 
suaded a clerk in the land office to open the office a few 
minutes past midnight on January 1st for Daniel Freeman 
alone. 

Thus it came that Daniel Freeman made homestead entry 
number one and afterwards received homestead patent num- 
ber one for 160 acres on Cub Creek near Beatrice. Thus 
Nebraska has the honor of having the first homestead in the 
United States. Since that time over 1,000,000 homesteaders 
have followed Daniel Freeman's example, receiving over 
120,000,000 acres of land as a free gift from our government. 
Of these homesteaders over 100,000 have lived in Nebraska. 
Nothing has helped so much in the settlement of the West as 



Daniel Freeman, First 
Homesteader in Unit- 
ed States 



112 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

its free lands. One of the songs sung everywhere after the 
passage of the homestead act had for its refrain these words : 

''Come along, come along, make no delay, 
Come from every nation, come from every way. 
Our lands they are broad enough, have no alarm 
For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm." 

Daniel Freeman served his country in the Union army 
until the close of the Civil War, in 1865. Then he brought 




The First Homestead. {From -photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 

his bride and settled on his Nebraska homestead. This has 
remained ever since the family home. Here their seven 
children grew to manhood and womanhood and here Mrs. 
Freeman lives with children and grandchildren. 

Mr. Freeman died December 30, 1908. This first home- 
stead is a beautiful farm in the valley where the prairie and 
timber land join. The old log cabin with sod roof, which was 
the first home of the Freeman family, has long since disap- 
peared. There is a brick house and orchard, and an old 
freighting road, from Missouri River to the mountains runs 
for nearly a mile through the place, with rows of giant cotton- 
woods planted by Mr. Freeman on either side. On the hill 
at one corner of the farm, overlooking the valley and the 



THE FIRST HOMESTEAD 113 

freighting road, is the grave of Daniel Freeman. It is pro- 
posed that the United States shall purchase this first home- 
stead from the Freeman family and make it a pubhc park to 
commemorate what is regarded as the most important law 
passed by the United States and the place where that law was 
first applied. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why is the free homestead law called the best law for the people in th^ 

United States? 

2. What was the reason Daniel Freeman got the first homestead? 

3. What is it worth to Nebraska to have the first homestead within itr 

borders? 



THE PAWNEES 



THE Pawnee nation lived in Nebraska for many years 
before the first white men came. Their traditions say 
that a long time ago they came from the Southwest, perhaps 
from the borders of Mexico. Through hundreds of years 
they were slowly moving northward. When the first white 
men found them, over two hundred years ago, what is now 
the Nebraska country was their home. The Pawnee nation 
was divided into four tribes, each of which had an Indian 
name and a white man 's name : Chau-i, Grand ; Kitke-hahk-i, 
Republican; Pita-hau-erat, Noisy; Ski-di, Wolf. These 
tribes were divided into bands, each of which lived in a 
group of houses and kept together on the march and in the 
village. 

The Pawnees were the most advanced in culture of any of 
the Nebraska Indians. In farming, in handiwork, in medi- 
cine, in music and religion they had made remarkable prog- 
ress and were imitated 
by the other Indians. 
They built large circular 
houses, called earth 
lodges, with walls of dirt 
and a roof supported by 
trunks of large trees set 
upright inside of the 
walls, the whole covered 
with poles, grass and sod. 

Pawnee Earth Lodge. {From photograph ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ 
by A. E. Sheldon.) Covered entrance and on 

the west were the sacred bundle and buffalo skull. There was 

a hole in the center of the roof to let out the smoke. The 

people slept around the edge of the circle made by the walls 

114 





THE PAWNEES 115 

and gathered about the lodge fire in the center to eat and 
talk. Such houses were warm in the coldest weather. The 
sod houses of the early white settlers were like them in struc- 
ture, but not in shape. In some 
places Pawnees built sod walls 
around their village to protect it 
from enemies. 

In the rich, moist valleys near 
the rivers, the Pawnee women 
raised crops of corn, beans, pump- 
kins, squashes and melons. They 
gathered roots from the prairie and 

wild fruit from the bushes and dried 

,, „ . ^ m • Ancient Pawnee Pottery 

them lor wmter use. I wice a year 

the tribe went on buffalo hunts, leaving their villages de- 
serted except for the men and women too old to go on the 
hunt. Thus they made part of their living by the chase and 
part by farming, very much as did the Germans and the 
Celts in the time of Julius Caesar. 

Before the white men came the Pawnees made their own 
tools and weapons out of wood, flint and stone, chipping the 
flint into sharp points for their arrow and spear heads and 
making hammers and axes out of stones. For hoes they tied, 
with strings of rawhide, the sharp shoulder blades of buffa- 
loes to sticks. They also made many kinds of pottery and 
thousands of pieces are found on the sites of their old towns in 
our state. 

The rulers of the Pawnees were chiefs. Sometimes a man 
came to be chief because his father was chief, and sometimes 
the son of a common man who proved to be wise, brave and 
fortunate in war and in hunting became chief. A chief who 
did not have these qualities soon lost his power. There was 
a head chief of the tribe, a council composed of other chiefs, 
and besides these an assembly of the whole people, as there 
were among the early Germans, to decide what should be 
done in important matters. 



116 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

The Pawnees were a very religious people. They be- 
lieved in spirits, ghosts, fairies, and enchanted animals and 
in magical places where strange things were done. Above 
all these they beheved in Tirawa, the father, who hved in the 
sky, who made all the people and who sent the corn, the 
buffalo, the rain, the sunshine and all other good things. 
If the people did as he wished they had good fortune and 
were happy. To gain the good will of the spirits there were 
dances, ceremonies, songs and sacrifices. There were special 
ceremonies and songs to secure the favor of Tirawa for every 
important event in the life of the Pawnees, the first thunder 
in the spring, the planting of corn, the start on a buffalo 
hunt, the return of a war party. Sacred bundles were kept 
in the lodges which held magical feathers and bones and 
other mysterious things. These were brought out for the 
great ceremonies. 

Singers made many songs for their special occasions. 
Story-tellers told many stories of the deeds of their young 
men and of ghosts and spirits and animals. In all these 
things the Pawnees were very skilful and their songs and 
stories were famous among Indians everywhere. These 
were handed down from the old to the young until there were 
very many of them. Other tribes have borrowed and copied 
a great deal from the Pawnee stories and songs. 

Medicine men had great power and influence among the 
Pawnees. Wonderful tales are told of the things done by 
them, such as raising in a few hours a full grown stalk of corn 
from a dry kernel, shaking a live fawn from a deerskin, mak- 
ing plums and cherries grow out of twigs, striking people dead 
with tomahawks and restoring them to life in a few minutes. 
White people who saw some of these wonderful feats were 
unable to explain them. Among the Indians themselves the 
mystery and magic of the Pawnee medicine men made them 
both courted and feared. 

The Skidi tribe of the Pawnee nation was the largest and 
most warlike. It kept up the old customs longer than any 



THE PAWNEES 117 

other tribe, among them the custom of offering human sacri- 
fice to the morning star. Prisoners taken in war were offered 
in these sacrifices in order to gain the favor of the god and 
bring good luck to the tribe. The last sacrifice of this kind 
known took place sixty or seventy years ago. There are old 
Pawnees who say that they saw it. The Pawnees often kept 
prisoners as slaves and other tribes held captured Pawnees 
as their slaves. There was also a custom among the Pawnees 
by which young men and boys who had as yet made no name 
for themselves by their deeds, lived as servants in the families 
of chiefs. Here they were fed and lodged and in their turn 
did all kinds of errands, such as caring for the horses and 
carrying messages. Older men who had not made a success 
in life lived in the same way, receiving support and protec- 
tion from the chief in payment for their services. In all this 
the Pawnee custom was very much like that of the feudal 
system in Europe when the common people served the lords 
and knights. 

The Pawnee nation as a whole was never at war with the 
white people. At times some of the young Pawnees had 
trouble with the settlers over stock. The so-called Pawnee 
war of 1859 was to punish a few such thieves. Pawnee men, 
women and children were frequent visitors in the homes of 
early Nebraska settlers and a Pawnee camp near a ranch 
served as a protection against hostile Sioux and Cheyenne. 

All the other Indian tribes of the plains were at war with 
the Pawnees. Sometimes peace would be made for a short 
time, but through the years the larger tribes of the plains, 
the Comanches, the Cheyennes, the Utes, the Arapahoes 
and especially the Sioux, were the constant and bitter enemies 
of the Pawnees. Always at war with these great tribes about 
them, it is little wonder that the Pawnees became fewer in 
number. 

One hundred years ago the Pawnee people were estimated 
to number 10,000. The Republican, or Kitkehahki tribe 
had villages on the Repubhcan River near Hardy, and near 



118 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

Red Cloud. The other three tribes hved in the valleys of the 
Platte and Loups. Graves and lodge circles extend for many 
miles near Lin wood, in Butler County, Osceola in Polk 
County and Leshara in Saunders County, marking the sites 
of Pawnee villages south of the Platte. In the North Platte 
region the valleys of the Loups and of Shell Creek in Colfax, 
Platte, Merrick, Nance and Howard counties are thickly 
dotted with remains of Pawnee villages. 

By a treaty with the United States in 1833 the Pawnee 
nation ceded all its country south of the Platte and agreed 
to move up on the Loups. A part went, but in 1846 the 
Sioux burned one of their villages there and the Pawnees 
came down the Platte, making their homes near Bellevue and 
Fremont. 

In 1849, the cholera swept away nearly 1200 Pawnees and 
every year their enemies, the Sioux, made raids upon them, 
so that their women hardly dared to hoe in the fields of corn. 

In 1857, the Pawnee nation ceded to the United States 
all its country north of the Platte except a reservation, now 
Nance County, on the Loup, and in 1859 the entire nation, 
then numbering between 3,000 and 4,000 people, moved 
there. 

For the next fourteen years the once proud Pawnees led 
a life of misfortune and disaster. The Sioux raided their 
villages. The white men coveted their beautiful tract of 
land and urged the government to remove them. Grass- 
hoppers and drought ruined their crops. Buffalo became 
scarce and could be found only by long journeys to the Re- 
publican River, in the country of their enemies, the Sioux. 
Finally in 1873, a party of Pawnees hunting buffalo were 
surprised by the Sioux near Culbertson in Hitchcock County 
and eighty-six were killed. 

Many of the Pawnees now desired to move to the Indian 
Territory and live near the Wichita tribe, who are near rel- 
atives. In 1873 a party of 300 went south and wintered. 
In 1874, 1,500 men, women and children left Nebraska and 



THE PAWNEES 119 

reached the Indian Territory in February, 1875. In Novem- 
ber, 1875, those left in Nebraska joined them, making a total 
of 2,200, all that remained of the Pawnee nation. 

For a number of years after this the Pawnees died very 
rapidly. They had left a land of clear flowing rivers, bright 
skies and cool dry climate. They went to a land where the 
climate was hot and damp, biting insects of all kinds abound- 
ed, and the water in the streams flowed red as blood from the 
red soil through which it passed. For a time it seemed that 
the whole nation would quickly disappear. 

The Pawnee reservation is now a part of Oklahoma and 
the remainder of the nation living there number 653. They 
never cease telling stories of the old times and the old home 
in Nebraska. To their children Nebraska is a wonderland, 
full of magical places, the scenes of heroic battles and strange 
events in their history, some of which are related in the pages 
of this book. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How long and how accurately are stories of old times kept by people who 

do not know how to write and read? 

2. Why were the sod houses of the early settlers different in shape from the 

Indian earth lodge? 

3. Do white men in Nebraska select their chiefs in the same way as the 

Pawnees did? 

4. How did the medicine men learn their art? 

5. Which Pawnee customs and beliefs were different from those of white 

men? Which were like the white men's customs? 

6. Why do you think the other tribes fought the Pawnees? 

7. Do you wish the Pawnees had stayed in Nebraska? 




COURT HOUSE ROCK 

IN the North Platte valley near the town of Bridgeport in 
Morrill County stands Court House Rock, rising three 
hundred and forty feet above the level of the valley, grand 
and massive in form. It is a landmark noted in all the West, 
which may be seen at a distance of fifty miles. Upon its 

summit is a small table- 
land. Upon three sides 
its walls are vertical, 
with no crevice or point 
where hand or foot may 
cling. There is one dif- 
ficult path on the re- 
maining side up which 
a man can climb with 

toil and danger to the 
Court House Rock and Jail Hock. Qummit 

Many years ago a small party of Skidi Pawnees camping 
near Court House Rock were surprised by the Sioux. They 
climbed the rock for safety while the Sioux camped at the 
foot where they waited for the Pawnees to starve or to come 
down and fight. 

The Pawnees suffered terribly from lack of food and 
water. Their leader was overcome with grief, for he saw the 
death of all his brave men near at hand. At night he went 
away from the others and looking up to the stars from the 
top of the rock, he prayed to Tirawa for help. As he prayed 
a voice spoke to him and said, ''Look for a place where you 
may get down from this rock and save both your men and 
yourself.'' All night he kept on praying and in the morning 
he looked along the edge of the rock for a crevice where one 
might get down. Near the edge of the cliff he found a point 

120 



COURT HOUSE ROCK 121 

of rock rising above the steep wall below. With his sharp 
knife he cut a deep groove around the base of this point where 
it was no larger around than a man's body. Then he tied 
together all the pony lariats which the Pawnees had, let them 
down and found they were long enough to reach the ground 
below. He tied one end of the long lariat around the point 
of rock, made a running loop in it for his foot and slowly let 
himself down pushing his back against the wall for support 
until he reached the bottom. Then with great strength and 
steadiness he climbed up by the same rope. The next night 
he called the Pawnees together and told them the way of 
escape. One by one, beginning with the youngest, the Paw- 
nees let themselves down by the rope to the bottom of the 
wall. The last one to go down was the leader. Then they 
softly crept through the camp of the Sioux and by morning 
were miles away on their journey to the Pawnee villages 
upon the Loup. 

No one knows how long the Sioux camped at the foot of 
the great high cliffs waiting for the Pawnees to starve or to 
surrender. But tradition says that if one will go to the top 
of Court House Rock and camp there all night he can hear 
the whisper of the Sioux sentinels far below him as they 
watch at the base of the cliff for their old enemies to come 
down. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Was the Pawnee leader a wise man? What tells? 

2. Why let the youngest down first? 

3. Why did the Sioux not hear the Pawnees as they made their escape? 

4. Should you like to camp on the top of Court House Rock over night? 

Why? 



MAJOR FRANK NORTH AND THE PAWNEE 

SCOUTS 

THE pioneers of Nebraska owe a great debt of gratitude 
to the Pawnee scouts and their gallant white leader, 
Major Frank North. During the Sioux and Cheyenne wars 
on the Nebraska frontier, from 1864 to 1877, these brave 
Indians, by their courage and vigilance, defended our 

border, saving the lives of hundreds 
of settlers. In all the campaigns 
the Pawnee scouts were at the 
front. They knew the country 
through years of buffalo hunting. 
They knew the ways and the camp- 
^^^^^^ ing grounds of their old enemies, 

i^^km^^' ^^^ Sioux, Cheyennes "and Arapa- 

f ^^^^ hoes. In their memories were the 

old wars of their fathers, and the 
blood of friends killed by a cruel 
foe. Spurred by these memories 
they led the way to the hostile camps. They stampeded the 
enemy's ponies, fought bravely in every battle and never 
stopped at hunger or hardship in the long hard rides. The 
story of the Pawnee scouts and their service to the people of 
Nebraska is one never to be forgotten. 

When the sudden storm of the Sioux and Cheyenne war 
broke on the Nebraska border in the summer of 1864, the 
white people were taken by surprise. This was during the 
war between the North and the South, when many of the 
settlers had enlisted and left their famihes without protec- 
tion. Hundreds of settlers and emigrants were killed, 
ranches and wagon trains burned, stock run off and butch- 
ered. As the story of the murders and burnings was brought 

122 




Major Frank North 



MAJOR NORTH AND THE PAWNEE SCOUTS 123 

in, there was terror in all the settlements. Everywhere the 
Indians were reported as being just at hand. Many settlers 
left their homes and fled to the Missouri River while others 
gathered at central ranches and hastily threw up intrench- 
ments. 

The few United States soldiers on our frontier were not 
experienced in fighting Indians. A call was made for Paw- 
nee scouts. Frank North was then twenty-four years old 
and a clerk at the Pawnee agency in what is now Nance 
County. He had settled at Columbus in 1858, lived among 
the Pawnees, learned their language and gained their confi- 
dence. He was made first lieutenant of the first company of 
Pawnee scouts, and soon after became captain, then major and 
remained their leader until they were mustered out of service. 

Their first important achievement was in General Con- 
nor's campaign in 1865. On August 22d, Captain North 
with forty scouts struck the trail of twenty-seven Sioux of 
Red Cloud's band, who had just killed a party of fifteen sol- 
diers. He followed the trail all day and all night, overtook 
the Sioux at daybreak and scalped every warrior, bringing 
back the horses and mules they had stolen. This was the 
first victory over the Sioux in this war. A few days later the 
Pawnee scouts led General Connor's army to a great camp 
of fifteen hundred hostile Arapahoes under Chief Black Bear. 
A complete victory was won, in which over two hundred 
Arapahoes were slain, and seven hundred ponies and all the 
tepees captured. The village with all its goods was burned 
and the destitute Arapahoes were glad to come in to Fort 
Laramie and make peace. 

In 1867 Captain North was made major of a battahon of 
four companies of Pawnees, fifty Indians in each company. 
They were armed with the new Spencer repeating rifles or 
'^ seven shooters'' and their special duty was to protect the 
workmen in building the Union Pacific Railroad. The hostile 
Indians had nearly stopped its construction by killing men, 
burning stations and running off stock. 



124 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



The Pawnee battalion took up this work with dehght. 
It had 300 miles of road from Plum Creek (now Lexington), 
in Dawson County to the Laramie Plains, to protect. The 
Sioux were completely surprised when they found their old 



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2 1 7 

Surviving Pawnee Scouts, 1911 

1. James R. Murie. Interpreter and student of Pawnee folk-lore. Son of Captain Murie 
of Major North's battalion. 

2. Captain Jim. His name under North was Koot-tah-wi-kootz-tah-kah (White Hawk). 
He served several times, is a medicine man and chief of Peta-hau-rata band. 

3. John Buffalo. His name under North was Ree-tit-ka-wi (Feather in scalp-lock). He 
served several times, is a Skidi and a medicine man, and served as Friar in a company. 

4. John Box, whose name when serving as a scout was Kee-wah-koo-pa-hat (Red Fox). 
He is a progressive Indian and one of the leading men among the Skidis. 

5. High Eagle, whose name was Laj^-tah-cots-si-ti-tu-hu-rey-ri-ku-kak-kit-ka-hoc. He 
was very young when scouting. 

6. Seeing Eagle, a Skidi, and a warrior who served under North each time. His name 
when scouting was Laj'-tah-cots-si-ti-ti-rit (They saw an eagle). 

7. Belly Osborne, a Skidi who was with North every time. He was a sergeant in Com- 
pany A. His name under North was Koot-tah-wi-koots-rah-rah-he-coots (Brave Hawk). 

enemy the Pawnees on their trail, with good horses and rifles 
and the United States back of them. After one or two sharp 
skirmishes, in which they were chased long distances with 
loss, their raids on the railroad became rare. 



MAJOR NORTH AND THE PAWNEE SCOUTS 125 

August 1, 1867, the Cheyenne chief ''Turkey Leg" with 
his band tore up a culvert four miles west of Plum Creek and 
ditched a Union Pacific freight train. They killed the train- 
men, broke open the cars, stole everything they could take 
and burned the train. Captain Murie with one company 
of Pawnee scouts, chased old Turkey Leg out of the state, 
killing fifteen warriors and capturing the chief 's nephew and 
a squaw. This discouraged Turkey Leg so much that he 
came into North Platte, gave up the six white prisoners he 
had in exchange for his nephew and the squaw, made peace, 
and became a good Indian. 

The Sioux Chief Tall Bull with a hostile band roamed 
over western Kansas and Nebraska for a long time, murder- 
ing, robbing, burning and dodging the soldiers sent after him. 
On July 12, 1869, Major North and the Pawnee scouts guided 
General Carr with the Fifth Cavalry to Tall Bull's camp 
hidden in the sandhills between the Platte and the French- 
man 's Fork, just west of the Nebraska state Hne. The bat- 
tle of Summit Springs which followed completely wiped out 
Tall Bull and his band. Fifty-two warriors were killed, and 
the camp wdth over four hundred horses and mules captured. 
Two white women prisoners were in Tall Bull 's tent. When 
he found the soldiers were upon him he killed one and wound- 
ed the other. The one wounded was a German woman 
whose husband had been murdered in Kansas. In the 
captured camp was a great deal of rich plunder taken from 
white people, including jewelry and over $1,500 in twenty- 
dollar gold pieces. This fell into the hands of soldiers and 
Pawnee scouts. Later when it was found that much of this 
gold had been taken from the dead husband of the wounded 
woman the white soldiers brought in $300 and the Pawnee 
scouts $600 and placed this sum in her hands on the battle- 
field. 

The defeat of Tall Bull's band was one of the greatest 
blessings to the Nebraska border. The Nebraska legisla- 
ture passed a vote of thanks to General Carr's com- 



126 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

mand, especially mentioning Major North and the Pawnee 
scouts. 

For two years the Pawnee scouts continued to guard and 
patrol the Union Pacific Railroad, making it possible to run 
regular trains to the Pacific Ocean. In January, 1871, the 
scouts were mustered out of service while Major North re- 
mained as scout and guide. 

In the summer of 1876 the Sioux under Sitting Bull and 
Crazy Horse were again on the warpath. General Custer 
and all his command were killed on the Little Big Horn in 
Montana. There were seven or eight thousand Sioux under 
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail in what is now Dawes and 
Sioux counties, Nebraska, near Fort Robinson. It was feared 
that they would break away and join the hostile Indians. 
General Sheridan ordered Major North to go to Indian Terri- 
tory, where the Pawnee tribe now lived, and to enlist one 
hundred scouts to serve against the Sioux. There was great 
excitement on the Pawnee reserve when Major North came. 
He found the Pawnees very poor. All of them w^anted to go 
with him. He picked out his one hundred men and was 
followed for eighty miles by others begging to enhst. 

With these one hundred scouts Major North reached 
Fort Robinson, October 22, 1876, and without resting was 
ordered to march forty miles with a regiment of cavalry. 
After an all night march they surprised Red Cloud's camp 
near Chadron at daybreak and captured it without a shot. 
All the ponies of Red Cloud 's band, over 700, were taken by 
the Pawnees to Fort Laramie and sold, while the Indians 
were marched on foot to Fort Robinson and kept to the end 
of the war. It was a bitter disgrace for the proud Sioux to 
have their ponies taken away from them by their old Pawnee 
enemies and Red Cloud never forgot it. 

In November, General Crook ordered Major North and 
the Pawnee scouts to march north for a winter campaign 
against the Sioux and Cheyennes. The Indian scouts 
brought news that they had found a large Cheyenne camp in 



MAJOR NORTH AND THE PAWNEE SCOUTS 127 

a pocket of the Big Horn mountains so well concealed that it 
would be impossible to approach it in dayhght. General 
McKenzie was ordered by General Crook to make a night 
march with 800 white cavalry and 70 Pawnee scouts. All 
night the soldiers rode over a terribly rough and dangerous 
region with their Pawnee guides at the head. Toward morn- 
ing they heard the sound of Indian drums. 

The Cheyennes were dancing a scalp dance over the re- 
turn of a successful war party. About daybreak the 
warriors, tired with dancing, went to sleep. A little later 
the Pawnees and soldiers burst into their camp. The 
Cheyennes fought desperately, for they were fighting for their 
homes and their winter hving. Most of them escaped to the 
rough ground from which they fired on the troops. All the 
Cheyenne ponies, 650 in number, were taken by the Paw- 
nees. General McKenzie ordered all the Cheyenne lodges, 
all their rich buffalo robes and winter provisions to be piled 
and burned to ashes, and the Cheyennes saw them burn. A 
heavy snowstorm came on and General McKenzie marched 
back, taking with him the Indian ponies and leaving the band 
destitute. 

The miserable Cheyennes with their women and children 
made their way on foot to the camp of Crazy Horse on Pow- 
der River. Over forty of their number died from exposure 
and starvation on the way. Stern Crazy Horse shut his 
doors in their face. He was so angry because they had per- 
mitted themselves to be outwitted and surprised that he 
would give them no help. There was nothing for the 
Cheyennes to do but to drag themselves across the cold plains 
to Fort Robinson and surrender to the whites. 

All the cold winter the war went on. General Crook 
never rested nor gave the enemy rest. There was no chance 
for the Sioux that winter to hunt buffalo or elk. The terri- 
ble cavalry and the Pawnee scouts, their old enemies, were 
on their trail. In the spring the starving and ragged rem- 
nants of the once proud Sioux of the plains came in and 



128 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

surrendered on Nebraska soil at Fort Robins6n. It was a 
great day for the Pawnee scouts when they were mustered 
out of service May 1, 1877, and returned to Indian Territory 
to tell the story of Red Cloud's ponies and Crazy Horse's 
surrender. 

After the war w^as over Major North engaged with W. F. 
Cody (Buffalo Bill) in cattle ranching on the Dismal River 
in western Nebraska. Thousands of their cattle ranged the 
sand hills. Their ranch door was open wide without price to 
all honest travelers, but cattle and horse thieves, white or 
red, soon learned to dread the fearless spirits and ready rifles 
waiting for them there. Many are the stirring and true 
stories told of Frank North in those ranching days. 

In 1882 the people of Platte County elected Major North 
to the Nebraska legislature. He died at Columbus March 
14, 1885, aged forty-five years, leaving a wife and daughter. 
All the people of Nebraska mourned his loss, for he was not 
only a brave soldier but kind and just and true in all his life. 

Only a few of the famous Pawnee scouts who followed 
Major North and kept the Nebraska border in the stormy 
years of war and front iering now survive. Those whom I 
saw on their reservation in Oklahoma were a fine group of 
sturdy men with strong fearless faces. Their eyes light up 
when the name of Major North is mentioned, and looking 
up into the sky they speak with deepest love and admiration 
his Pawnee name, ^'Pani-LeShar." 



QUESTIONS 

Why were the Pawnees and white men together able to defeat the hostile 

Indians when neither one alone could make headway against them? 
Why did the hostile Indians try to prevent the building of the Union 

Pacific Railroad? 
Did General Crook do right in taking away all their ponies from Red 

Cloud's band? Ought the United States to pay for them? 
What quaUties do you think a white man must have to become a leader 

among Indians? 



THE ROCK BLUFFS DINNER PARTY 

ROCK BLUFFS is a quiet little village in Cass County on 
the Missouri River. It is one of the earliest settle- 
ments in the state. Its name will always be joined to an 
important event in Nebraska history, for on the counting of 
its vote depended whether Nebraska should come into the 
union a Republican or a Democratic state. And the counting 
of its vote was made to depend on the ballot box going to 
dinner. 

At the election in June, 1866, the people of Nebraska 
voted upon the question whether Nebraska should become a 
state. At the same time they voted for state officers whom 
they would have provided it became a state. The Republi- 
cans were in favor of making Nebraska a state at once and 
named David Butler of Pawnee County as candidate for 
governor. The Democrats opposed making Nebraska a 
state at once, and named J. Sterling Morton of Otoe County 
as candidate for governor. The people were nearly evenly 
divided and there was great excitement. 

There were no telephones and very few telegraph lines in 
Nebraska in those days. The settlements were scattered 
and it took a long time to find out how the people had voted. 
When the returns came in it was found that about one hun- 
dred more had voted to have Nebraska become a state at 
once than had voted against it. 

A legislature also was voted for at this time, which was to 
choose two United States Senators. In Rock BluiTs pre- 
cinct there were cast 107 votes for the Democrats and 49 for 
the Republicans. With these votes counted the Democrats 
would elect six members of the legislature from Cass County. 
Without them the Republicans would elect all six members. 
It was found that the election officers who had charge of the 

129 



130 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Rock Bluffs House where Llection 
WAS Held in 1866 



ballot box in Rock Bluffs precinct had gone at noon from the 
house where the election was held to a house a mile away to 
eat dinner and had taken the ballot box with them. The 

law said that the ballot 
box should be in sight of 
the voters on election day 
from nine o'clock in the 
morning until six o'clock 
at night. The county 
clerk and the men who 
helped him to canvass 
the votes at Plattsmouth 
threw out all the votes 
from Rock Bluffs precinct 
because the ballot box 
went to dinner instead of staying at the polls. This gave 
the six Republican candidates a majority in Cass County. 
When the legislature met to elect two United States 
Senators the two Repubhcan candidates, John IM. Thayer 
and T. W. Tipton, each received 29 votes and the two Demo- 
cratic candidates, J. Sterling Morton and A. J. Poppleton, 
each received 21 votes. If the Rock Bluffs vote had been 
counted the two Democrats would have been elected. 

There was a great outcry by the Democrats at the time 
and in the records and newspapers of those early days you 
may still read the hot words spoken and written about this 
affair. The men who fought each other in those fierce early 
political battles have nearly all passed away. Little now 
remains of the village of Rock Bluffs. A few old houses only 
exist on the old site near the ^Missouri River, six miles from a 
railroad and only a few of the people there now know the 
story of the ballot box that went to dinner and changed the 
politics of a state. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Do you think the vote of Rock Bluffs precinct should have been thro^NTi 

out? 

2. Was Nebraska made permanently a Repubhcan instead of a Democratic 

state by this action? 



THE BATTLE OF ARICKAREE FORK OR 
BEECHER ISLAND 

OX tho 17th of September, 1869, was fought the hardest 
battle between the white men and the plains Indians in 
the annals of the West. It was fought on the Arickaree fork 
of the Republican River, a few miles from the southwest 
corner of Nebraska and not far from the present town of 
Wray, Colorado, on the Denver line 
of the Burlington road. Fifty-one 
scouts and frontiersmen under the 
command of Lieutenant Geo. A. 
Forsyth stood off, on a little sand- 
bar in the river, the combined forces 
of the Northern Cheyennes, Arapa- 
hoes and Oglala Sioux for nine days. 
They lost more than one third their 
own number in killed and wounded, 
while the Indian loss was many 
times as great. 

For months these Indians had 
been murdering the settlers and 
travelers in western Nel)raska and 
Kansas. Soldiers were sent to pursue them but always 
arrived on the scene of their action after the Indians were 
gone, finding nothing but the melancholy duty of burying 
the murdered citizens. Lieutenant Forsyth raised a com- 
pany of fifty frontiersmen. Many of them had lost their 
dearest friends and relatives by the Indians. Some of them 
were noted scouts. All of them enlisted to fight. 

Early in September this Httle command started from the 
place of the latest Indian murder near Fort Wallace, Kansas. 
They struck a trail leading to the Republican River. Follow- 

131 




Lieut. Geo. A. Foksyth 



132 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

ing the trail up the RepubUcan River in Nebraska it was 
joined by other trails and still others until the little party of 
fifty men was traveling a great beaten road, as wide as the 
Oregon Trail, made by thousands of Indians and ponies, and 
with hundreds of camp fires where they stopped at night. 
It seemed a crazy act to follow so great a trail with so small 
a party, but the little band had started out to find and fight 
Indians and kept on. 

On the afternoon of September 16th, the Indian signs 
were very fresh and Lieutenant Forsyth resolved to go into 
camp early, rest his men and be ready to strike the Indians 
the next day. An extra number of men were posted on 
picket duty to prevent surprise. In the earliest gray of the 
next morning, the men were up and saddling their horses 
when there came a volley of shots from the pickets followed 
by the yell and rush of Indians. The savages had expected 
to find the soldiers asleep and their horses out feeding. 
Their plan was to stampede the horses and leave the soldiers 
on foot in the open prairie where they could easily surround 
them and cut them off. They found their horses saddled, 
every scout ready with his rifle, and soon retreated out of 
reach of the white men 's bullets. As daylight broke, Grover, 
the head scout, exclaimed, ^^ Look at the Indians !" The hills 
on both sides of the little valley swarmed with them. None 
of the scouts had ever before seen so many hostile Indians in 
one body. 

Lieutenant Forsyth saw the situation at a glance. A few 
hundred yards away in the middle of the river was a sandbar 
island having one Cottonwood tree and a growth of willows. 
It was the only cover in the valley. At the word of com- 
mand the scouts dashed forward through the water to the 
island. Every man tied his horse strongly to a willow bush 
and dropping on his knee held his rifle in one hand and dug 
a hole in the sand with the other. This move was a com- 
plete surprise to the Indians. They had expected to eat up 
the little band at one mouthful. They now saw them mak- 



THE BATTLE OF ARICKAREE FORK 133 

ing a fort out of the little island. The Indians crowded up 
to the bank on both sides of the river and filled the air with 
a storm of bullets and arrows. A number of the scouts were 
killed and wounded, while the poor horses plunged and 
struggled in misery until they fell in death. 

The fire of the Indians was very hot and accurate. 
Lieutenant Forsyth had his leg broken by a bullet and his 
second in command, Lieutenant Frederick H. Beecher, a 
nephew of Henry Ward Beecher, was killed. Forsyth cut 
the bullet from his leg, which he bandaged with his own hands, 
telling his men to be steady, to help each other and to make 
every shot count. In the course of an hour the men became 
calmer. They were getting a good cover with sand and 
dead horses. Every time an Indian showed himself within 
range a bullet went after him. This discouraged the 
Indians so much that they drew back, while the scouts took 
the time to care for the wounded and to throw up more sand. 

About noon there was a great gathering of Indians on the 
hill in sight of the scouts. Warriors came riding in from all 
parts of the field. Among them was one whom every scout 
knew at long distance. He was Roman Nose, over six feet 
tall, the tallest Indian on the plains, and one of their greatest 
chiefs. It was evident a big plan was under way. The 
council broke up and the plan appeared. Roman Nose led 
a body of mounted young men out into the valley. Others 
joined them. They drew together in a line facing the island 
with Roman Nose at the head. The plan was now clear. 
This chosen body of two or three hundred was to charge 
straight on the island while the rest of the Indians crept up 
through the grass and fired as fast as they could at the scouts 
in their sand pits to distract their attention. 

Roman Nose gave the signal and his horsemen started 
for the island. Lieutenant Forsyth had ordered his men not 
to fire until the first pony reached the river's edge. The 
scouts were armed with a new gun, the Spencer Seven- 
shooter Carbine. The Indians knew what a one-shot rifle 



134 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



was, but had never seen one that shot seven times without 
loading. On came the hne of Indians, yelhng and whipping 
their horses. Just at the river 's bank the rifles of the scouts 
flashed from the sand pits and groups of riders fell from their 
ponies. On they came. Another volley and more Indians 
fell. Another, and another and another and another, with 
a steady aim and terrible effect. Roman Nose himself fell 
dead from his horse and the Indian line broke and scattered. 
Lieutenant Forsyth turned anxiously to his scout Grover. 
''Can they do any better than that?" he asked. ''I have 
been on these plains, boy and man, for twenty years and I 
never saw anything like it,'' answered the scout. ''Then 
we have got them," replied Forsyth. 

The battle now changed to a siege, while from the hills 
arose that most harrowing of all sorrowful cries, the wail of 
the Indian women for their dead. Through many hours 
this haunted the ears of the men on the island. There were 
no more attempts to take the island by storm. Starvation 
was the Indian plan. At the first of the fight the scouts had 
lost their pack mules with all their provisions. They had 
nothing but river water and dead horse. Attempts were 

made after dark to creep 



through the Indian lines 
and carry word to the 
railroad a hundred miles 
away. One attempt 
failed. The Indians were 
too watchful. Another 
attempt was made, two 
scouts crept out in the 
darkness and did not re- 
turn. Those left on the 
island could not know 
whether their messengers were dead or not. They could 
only hope and watch the line where the sky and prairie met. 
For a whole week they lay in their sand pits, drank river 




Arickaree or Beecher Island Battle- 
field, 1910 



THE BATTLE OF ARICKAREE FORK 135 

water and ate horse meat. The hot sun glared from the 
sky, the smell of the dead filled the air, the flies buzzed and 
the Indians glided stealthily about the hills. A little charge 
would have captured the island now, but the Indians had 
suffered too much to try again. They preferred to starve 
the scouts. 

It was in the forenoon of September 25th, when a dark 
moving patch appeared far off on the prairie. It grew larger 
until the watchers saw that it was an ambulance and a 
column of cavalry. They knew then that the battle and the 
siege of Beecher Island were over. The Indians fled as the 
soldiers came near, and soon the starving and wounded were 
being cared for. 

General Custer said that the Arickaree fight was the 
greatest battle on the plains. At Wounded Knee, South 
Dakota, lived a tall wise Sioux named Fire Lightning. He 
was in the Arickaree fight and told me this story one summer 
afternoon sitting in the shadow of his log house and looking 
out upon his garden. He said the Indians lost nearly a 
hundred men in the fight and showed by gestures with his 
hands how fast the white men fired from their sand pits and 
how Roman Nose fell from his horse. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Did Lieutenant Forsyth act the part of a wise commander in following 

such an Indian trail with his small force? 

2. Was it courage or skill or accident which saved his soldiers from destruc- 

tion? 

3. Was Roman Nose's plan a good one? Why did it fail? 

4. Which would you rather have done — stayed on the island or crept out 

to get help? 



THE FIRST RAILROAD 

AFTER Lewis and Clark had found a way to the Pacific 
Ocean, and the early emigrants to Oregon, California 
and Utah had made the great overland wagon roads across 
Nebraska and on to the western coast, the people began to 
want a railroad to the Pacific. The first railroad in the 
United States was built in 1829 at Baltimore. Soon after 
that a few people began to talk about a railroad to the Pacific 
Ocean. It was a far-off dream at first. Nowhere in the 
world had a railroad ever been built for so great a distance 
or over such high mountains. Then there were no white 
people living along the way, but instead there were tribes 
of wild Indians. So those who spoke of building a railroad 
to the Pacific were called dreamers. Very few thought it 
was possible to build such a road and still fewer believed that 
they would ever live to see it built. 

In 1850 Senator Benton, of Missouri, introduced a bill in 
Congress to build a Pacific railroad. By it the United 
States was to give a strip of land a mile wide from the 
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and the railroad was to 
be built in the center of the mile strip. More people began 
to believe it was possible to build a railroad to the Pacific. 
They began to dispute where it should be built. Some want- 
ed it built in the south and some in the north and some in the 
central part of the United States. The dispute was so 
fierce it seemed that no road would be built because the 
people would never agree upon its route. 

War broke out between the South and the North in 1861. 
There was more need than ever for a railroad to unite the 
East with the West. Many surveys had been made to find 
the best route across the mountains. The Nebraska way, 
up the broad level -valley of the Platte, was chosen as the best 

136 



THE FIRST RAILROAD 137 

approach to them. On the first day of July, 1862, President 
Abraham Lincoln signed the bill which provided for building 
the first railroad to the Pacific Ocean and the first railroad 
in Nebraska. To help build the road the United States gave 
each alternate section of land for twenty miles on each side of 
the track, and besides this loaned the company $16,000 for 
each mile across the prairie and S48,000 for each mile in the 




Union Pacific Railroad Train Crossing Missouri River at Omaha, 1866 

mountains. The road was called the Union Pacific and the 
first shovel of dirt for its track was thrown in Omaha on 
December 2, 1863. 

There were very great hindrances to be overcome in 
building the road. A great war was going on and it was hard 
to get men. All the iron and most of the other material had 
to be shipped long distances. The Indians on the plains 
killed many of the workmen, drove off the horses and cattle 
and burned the stations. It was July 13, 1865, before the 



138 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

first rails were laid at Omaha. On March 13, 1866, the first 
sixty miles as far as North Bend were completed. During 
that year the first trains began running to Kearney. It took 
nineteen hours to go from Omaha to Kearney, now Buda, 
and the fare was nineteen dollars. By June, 1867, the track 
had been laid as far as the west line of Nebraska, and on 
May 10, 1869, the builders of the Union Pacific from 
Nebraska met the builders of the Central Pacific from 
California at Promontory Point on the shore of the Great 
Salt Lake in Utah and drove a golden spike which completed 
the railroad and made a continuous line from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean. 

Since that time seven other lines have been built across 
the mountains to the western coast, but to Nebraska belongs 
the honor of determining the route for the first Pacific rail- 
road. 

Every night and every day great trains fly along the 
Platte valley crowded with passengers for the mountains, 
the Pacific coast and the world which lies beyond, passing 
on their way the trains loaded with the teas, the silks and the 
wonderful handiwork of Japan, India and China, the fruit of 
California and Oregon, and the cattle, sheep and minerals 
from the mountains. Never a pause in this wonderful pro- 
cession as it hurries over the Nebraska plains, making them 
the highwa}^ of the greatest commerce east and west which 
the world has ever known. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What are dreamers good for? 

2. Why was the first Pacific railroad built across Nebraska? 

3. Of what good to Nebraska is it to have the world's commerce and woi'Jd's 

travelers passing over our railroads? 



o 



A STAGE COACH HERO OF THE LITTLE BLUE 

N the morning of August 9, 1864, the overland stage 
coach left Big Sandy station on the Little Blue River 
in Jefferson County, Nebraska. There were seven men and 
two women passengers. Robert Emery was the driver. 

Two days before this the Sioux had attacked the travelers 
and stations on the overland trail from the Platte to the 
Little Blue. About forty white people were killed, scalped 
and cut to pieces, ranches and wagon trains were burned 
and all the stock run off. 

Rumors of the Indian attack had reached Big Sandy, but 
no one knew the truth, — that butchered men and burned 
wagons lined the road for two hundred miles. No signs of 
Indians were seen by the stage driver until eleven o'clock. 
The stage was not far from 'Hhe Narrows," a long ridge lead- 
ing to the valley of the Little Blue with deep gullies on either 




Stage Coach. {Drawing hy Miss Martha Turner.) 

side, when the driver saw, about two hundred yards ahead, 
a band of fifty Indians waiting for him. Quick as he saw 
them he wheeled his four horses and stage coach right about 
and started back,— ten yards farther on and he could not 
have done this. 

It was a race for life. The Indians gave their yell and 
dashed after them in pursuit. The driver laid the lash on 

139 



140 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

the horses' backs and the stage flew over the road. The 
passengers sprang to their feet wild with fright. "Keep 
your seats or we are lost!" commanded the driver and they 
obeyed. Arrows flew thick. Some stuck in the stage 
coach, some grazed the driver's cheek and one cut the 
rosette from the bridle of a wheel horse. 

The driver kept a cool head. There were two sharp 
turns in the road. As he neared them he pulled up the 
horses, made the turns carefully and then whipped ahead 
again. The passengers held their breath in terror at these 
turns as they watched the Indians gain on them, but the 
splendid speed and mettle of the stage horses carried them 
on. 

Three miles the race lasted. Far ahead a swaying line 
in the road showed an ox train of twenty-five wagons coming 
west. A mile away the master of the train saw the Indians 
and stage coach. He quickly made a corral of his wagons 
with an opening toward the west. Into this gap Emery 
drove his stage while the rifles of the wagon train began to 
bark at the Indians. The passengers were saved and could 
hardly express their joy. They hugged and kissed the driver 
and threw their arms about the necks of the noble horses 
that had brought them through in safety. 



A year later the stage driver lay dying with a fever. Just 
before his death, Mrs. Randolph, one of the passengers in the 
stage coach that day, placed upon his finger a beautiful gold 
ring with these words engraved upon it : 

E. Umphry, G. C. Randolph 

and Hattie P. Randolph to 

ROBERT EMERY 

in remembrance of what we owe 

to his cool conduct and good driving on 

Tuesday, August 9, 1864. 



A STAGE COACH HERO OF THE LITTLE BLUE 141 




Monument Marking Site of the Stage Coach Race. John Gilbert 

(right), James Comstock (left). Gilbert was on Top of the 

Stage Coach During the Race 

And, looking at the ring, this stage coach hero of the 
Little Blue gave up the Unes at the end of his last drive. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Have you ever seen a stage coach? Have you ridden in one? 

2. In what respects is a stage coach journey better fun than a journey by 

railroad? 

3. Was Robert Emery just the kind of a man to drive a stage coach? Why? 

4. What are such men as Robert Emery doing to-day? 



THE PRAIRIE FIRE 

ALL Nebraska was one great field of wild grass in the 
early days. A few trees grew along the streams and in 
the ravines. All the rest was grass. In the heat of summer 
the short grass dried on its roots. When the frosts of early 
fall came the tall, green grasses were killed. Then the au- 
tumn winds blew and the grass everywhere was dead and 
very dry. 

Prairie fires burned in this great ocean of dry grass every 
fall and spring. Indians or white hunters or campers started 
them. Once started a fire spread on and on until a rain fell 
or until it reached a river too wide for it to jump. 

One of the great dangers to the early settlers was from 
the prairie fire. To protect their homes and stacks from its 
ravages they broke a narrow strip of sod around them, then, 
at some distance inside of that, another narrow strip and 
burned the grass between. This was called a '^fireguard." 
It was usually from four to eight rods wide. It would stop 
any common fire and keep the settler's house and stables 
and haystacks safe. 

Early every fall the children on the farm helped their 
father to burn fireguards around the place. This was done 
on the first quiet evening after the grass was dry. It was 
great fun for the children, who loved to take long wisps of 
lighted grass and carry the fire along the inside of the fire- 
guard with shouts and laughter, while the dark prairie was 
lighted until their moving figures made shadows upon the 
fields. 

A little later the prairie fires appeared. Every night a 
red glow against the sky was the sign of distant fires. The 
days were smoky and the smell of burning grass was upon 
the air. Sometimes there came a high wind driving the 

142 



THE PRAIRIE FIRE 143 

flames faster than a horse coulji run. Blazing tumble weeds 
and sunflower heads were caught up in the gale and whirled 
hundreds of yards, starting new fires wherever they fell. 

The front of such a fire was called a ^'headfire." It ran 
with the wind across miles of prairie, with its long red tongues 
licking at every object, jumping fireguards and even rivers 
in its path. Behind it the prairie roared and crackled, for 






An Early Prairie Fire. {From Catlin.) 

the headfire had no time to burn the grass in its course. It 
touched it with the torch and rushed on to find fresh fuel. 
The level prairie looked like a lake of fire with a lurid cloud 
of smoke rising above it. It was a grand sight, but terrible 
to the settler whose farm lay in its path. 

The only way to protect against a high headfire was to 
start a backfire some distance ahead of it which would burn 
away the grass and leave nothing to feed it. The backfire 



144 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

was set at the edge of a fireguard facing the wind, or it was 
set on the open prairie by carrying a hne of fire along a few 
feet at a time and whipping out the side of the fire away from 
the wind. In either case the backfire burned slowly against 
the wind until it met the headfire. In a furious gale a back- 
fire was hard to control for it would get away from the men. 

In October, 1871, great fires burned along the Nebraska 
frontier. There had been no rain for weeks. The grass was 
so dry that it seemed to explode when touched with flame. 
A great wind from the west drove the fires from the unsettled 
open prairie upon the settlements. Fireguards failed to stop 
the flames. The Blue River was jumped by the fire in many 
places. Thick smoke hung over the region. Hundreds of 
homesteaders lost their houses and crops and some lost their 
lives. In other years there were also great losses. 

In spite of all these dangers every year new fields were 
plowed and the settlements pushed farther west until the 
fires could no longer range across the country. The days of 
the great prairie fires which swept the whole state are past 
forever. The children of to-day and of the future will never 
see in Nebraska the miles on miles of blazing prairie with 
headfires rushing fiercely down upon their homes like those 
seen by their parents when they were children, and thus they 
will miss one of the grandest and most thrilling sights so 
familiar to the children of the pioneers. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Do you enjoy an outdoor fire? When do you enjoy it most and why? 

2. How do you think a great prairie fire driven by a head wind was regarded 

by the pioneer children? By their parents? 

3. What effect had the great prairie fires of the early days upon Nebraska? 

4. Should you rather live in a pioneer or a long settled country? Why? 



THE ARROW THAT PINNED TWO BOYS 
TOGETHER 

TWO boys, Nathaniel and Robert, were helping their 
father, George Martin, in the hayfield one day in Au- 
gust, 1864. Their ranch was in the broad valley of the Platte 
in Hall County, about eighteen miles southwest of Grand 
Island. 

Suddenly the hills along the valley were covered with 
Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. It was the time of the great 
Indian raid of 1864. The father and boys started for the 
shelter of the log house and barns at the ranch. The two 
boys were mounted on one pony while the father drove a 
team hauling a load of hay. Before they could reach the 
buildings the Indians, shooting a shower of arrows, circled 
about the boys. One of the arrows struck Nathaniel in the 
arm and buried itself in Robert 's back, pinning the two boys 
together. Both fell from the pony. Two or three Indians 
rode up. One drew his knife to take their scalps. Another 
Indian said in English, ''Let the boys alone," and they were 
left there for dead. 

Shots were fired from the ranch and the Indians rode 
away, taking with them some of Mr. Martin 's stock. After 
they had gone the boys were brought in, the arrow was cut 
from their bodies and their mother cared for them. Both 
of them lived to be grown men and the story of the two boys 
who were pinned together by an Indian arrow is one of the 
stories told many times on the frontier. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why did the Indians not scalp these boys? 

2. What difference between farm and ranch life in these early years and 

now? 

145 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 

THE Sioux nation was the strongest Indian nation in the 
West. Its people roamed the country from the forests 
and lakes of northern Minnesota across the plains of North 
and South Dakota to the mountains of Wyoming and south- 
ward over the plains of western Nebraska as far as the 
Republican River. There were many tribes and bands of 
the Sioux nation. Two of these tribes, the Brule and Ogiala, 
among the most warlike of the Sioux nation, claimed western 
Nebraska as their hunting ground and home. They also 
claimed western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. 
Each of these tribes numbered about seven or eight thou- 
sand. In the summer they hunted buffalo in the valleys of 
the Platte and the Republican rivers and in the winter they 
found shelter, fuel and game in the region of the Black Hills 
and Big Horn Mountains. 

Two great chiefs. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, of the 
Oglala and Brule tribes, stand out above all others in the 
history of the Sioux nation. Their names are forever famous 
in the story of Nebraska. Their lives covered the critical 
periods in the annals of their people, from early contact with 
fur traders, through the great wars to the final settlement of 
the Sioux nation in its present home. 

Red Cloud was born at Blue Creek in what is now Garden 
county, Nebraska, in May, 1821. Spotted Tail was born in 
1823, in Wyoming. Red Cloud's family belonged to the 
Bad Face band of the Oglala tribe. Spotted Tail was a 
member of the Brule tribe. Both began life as common 
warriors and became chiefs through superior qualities of 
mind and body. 

The history of the Oglala and Brule Sioux since they were 
first known to white men may be divided into three periods. 

146 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 



147 




Red Cloud 



The first period extends from the earUest exploration of their 
country by the white men to their first treaty with the 
United States at Fort Laramie in 1851, and covers the child- 
hood and youth of Red Cloud and 
of Spotted Tail. The second period 
extends from the Fort Laramie 
treaty of 1851, to the Fort Laramie 
treaty of 1868, and covers the ma- 
ture manhood of each of these two 
great chiefs. The third period 
reaches from the Fort Laramie treaty 
of 1868, to the death of Red Cloud 
December 10, 1909, and covers the 
old age of each of these noted 
Indians. 

During the first period the Oglalas and Brules were at 
peace with the white people but were at war with nearly all 
the Indian tribes around them. The Sioux were new-comers 
in that beautiful region where the mountains and plains meet 
and were driving out the earUer inhabitants, the Crows, the 
Snakes, the Utes and the Pawnees. In these early wars with 
their Indian neighbors Red Cloud and Spotted Tail became 
leaders. At the age of sixteen Red Cloud went on his first 
war party and came back victorious. During the next ten 
years both young men made names for themselves not only 
for daring, but for good luck, which counts for much more in 
an Indian camp. 

Two events of this period gave Red Cloud fame in the 
camps of the Sioux. The first was in 1849, when he crossed 
the Rocky Mountains, as Caesar and Napoleon crossed the 
Alps, leading a war party into the heart of the Shoshoni 
country and bringing back many scalps and ponies. The 
other was in 1850, when an old quarrel broke out anew in the 
Bad Face band and Red Cloud, who was a leader of the 
younger men, shot and killed Bull Bear, then the most noted 
chief in the band. 



148 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

At this time a new and strange experience came into the 
lives of the Brule and Oglala Sioux, overshadowing all their 
future and filling the minds of their wisest chiefs with anxious 
concern. This was the great migration over the Oregon 
Trail to Oregon, California, and Utah. At first there were 
only occasional trains of a few wagons each. After the dis- 
covery of gold in California the trail became crowded with 
thousands of wagons, and with men, women and children. 
These emigrants shot the buffalo and other game without 
asking leave of the Indians. It was evident that if the 
white men kept coming, the game after a time w^ould be 
gone and the Sioux, who lived entirely by hunting, would 
starve. 

To prevent trouble the first council with the Oglalas, 
Brules, and other plains tribes was held on Horse Creek near 
Fort Laramie in 1851. A treaty was made by which the 
United States confirmed to each tribe the land occupied by 
it. All the tribes agreed to the division of the land made by 
this treaty, so that for the first time in the history of the 
plains Indians all the great hunting ground between the Mis- 
souri River and the Rocky Mountains was divided among 
them. All the Indians agreed that ''The Great Road" 
along the Platte and across the mountains should be free and 
open for the white people, and the United States agreed to 
pay to the Indians fifty thousand dollars in goods each year 
for fifty years for the use of this road through their country. 
The Indians agreed not to rob or attack the white people 
upon this road, and the United States agreed to keep the 
white people from going elsewhere in the Indian country 
without permission of the Indians. When the treaty was 
sent to Washington the United States Senate changed the 
payments of the fifty thousand dollars from fifty years to 
ten years. The Indians never agreed to the change. The 
white people continued to use the great road and the United 
States sent out each year the fifty thousand dollars in goods 
to pay the Indians for the use of it. Neither Red Cloud nor 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 149 

Spotted Tail signed this first treaty with the Oglalas and 
Brules. They had not yet become chiefs. 

The first goods to pay for the use of the Oregon Trail 
under this treaty arrived near Fort Laramie in the summer 
of 1854. All the plains Sioux assembled to receive their 
portion. Before the agent came from St. Louis to distribute 
the goods, peace between the white people and the Sioux was 
broken by the affair of the Mormon cow and the killing of 
Lieutenant Grattan and party, the story of which is told 
elsewhere in this book. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were 
in the great Sioux camp at that time and shared in the 
general feeling of indignation among the Oglalas and Brules 
at the kilhng of their great chief, The Bear, by Lieutenant 
Grattan. In later years Red Cloud often referred to this in- 
cident, saying that the white men made The Bear chief of all 
the Sioux and then killed him, hence it was not safe for any 
one to hold that office. 

General Harney punished the Brule Sioux severely at the 
battle of Ash Hollow or Blue Water in what is now Garden 
County, September 3, 1855, for the killing of Lieutenant 
Grattan and his party. Quiet was restored on the frontier. 
Emigrant travel went on over the Oregon Trail and the 
goods to pay for its use were sent each year to Fort Laramie 
and there given out to the Indians. The Sioux continued 
the wars against their Indian enemies, especially the Paw- 
nees on the east and the Crows on the west. Red Cloud and 
Spotted Tail both grew in reputation as leaders. 

Gold was found near Pike's Peak in 1859. Soon thou- 
sands of gold hunters filled the foothills of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, driving out the game. All the Indians were restless at 
the invasion of their hunting grounds. In 1862 came the 
great Sioux uprising in Minnesota. The Oglala and Brule 
Sioux were hundreds of miles away, but their hearts were with 
their kinsmen in the north. They knew that a great war 
was going on between the white men of the North and the 
white men of the South. They were urged by messengers to 



150 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

go on the warpath and drive all the white men out of their 
country before they became too strong to be driven out. 
Councils of all the plains Indians were held in 1862 and 1863. 
The greatest of these was held May 1, 1863, on the old 
council ground at the mouth of Horse creek near the Ne- 
braska-Wyoming line. There were plenty of Indians who 
favored a general massacre of the whites, but the plan was 
postponed for another year. 

In August, 1864, the Sioux and Cheyenne war broke out 
all along the frontier of Nebraska and Kansas. All of the 
plains tribes were in sympathy with the war, but not all were 
active in it. While this war w^as going on a new gold field 
was found in Montana. The most direct route to the new 
gold mines was over the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie and 
from Fort Laramie north through the Powder River country 
to the mines. A commission came from Washington to Fort 
Laramie in the summer of 1866, to make a bargain with the 
Sioux for this new road. Spotted Tail and the Brules were 
willing to make the agreement. They did not hunt in that 
region. Red Cloud and the Oglalas refused because the 
Powder River country was their best buffalo hunting ground. 
They had conquered it from the Crows. They had seen the 
white people pouring in everywhere, the Union Pacific Rail- 
road was being built, the buffalo were being killed off and 
even while they were holding the council at Fort Laramie 
regiments of soldiers arrived there who were to make the new 
forts on the new road. The Oglala chiefs rose to leave the 
council. As they did so Red Cloud placed his hand upon his 
rifle and said, ''In this and in the Great Spirit I put my trust." 
The new roads were opened and the forts were built in the 
summer of 1866. Red Cloud became the leader of the war 
against the whites. Every day came news of fighting on the 
road to the Montana mines. December 21, 1866, Red 
Cloud and his warriors drew Colonel Fetterman and ninety- 
six soldiers into an ambuscade near Fort Phil Kearny in 
Wyoming, and every white man was killed. 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 



151 



There was an outcry in the country against the invasion 
of Red Cloud 's country without his consent. A great peace 
commission was named at Washington with General Sher- 
man at its head. This commission came to Fort Laramie 
in 1868, and made the treaty called ^' The Great Fort Laramie 
Treaty of 1868." For more than forty years this treaty was 
regarded by the Sioux as the great charter of their rights. 
The Sioux orators knew it in their own language by heart 
and repeated it in all their speeches in the great councils or 
around the tepee fire. It has been to them what the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the Constitution are to the Ameri- 
can people. The treaty of 1868 provided that every Sioux 
over four years of age should receive from the United States 
every year one suit of clothes, ten dollars in money, and 
rations at the rate of one pound of meat and one pound of 
flour for each day. To every Indian who began farming, the 
United States would issue one cow, one yoke of oxen, and 
twenty dollars in money. The new road through the Pow- 
der River hunting grounds was to be given up and all the 
soldiers from there withdrawn. The Sioux were to have the 
right to hunt upon the Platte and Republican as long as 
buffalo were there. Schools were 
to be established for all the Sioux 
children. On their part the Sioux 
agreed to keep peace with the whites 
and to permit the Union Pacific road 
to be built. 

The treaty of 1868 was regarded 
as a great victory for Red Cloud. 
He had beaten the white men in 
battle. They had abandoned their 
forts and left him his hunting 
grounds. Yet Red Cloud was one 
of the last of the Indians to sign the treaty. Spotted Tail 
and other Brule chiefs ^Houched the pen," as the Indians 
call it, on April 29, 1868. May 25th many of the Oglala 




Spotted Tail. 
collection of A . 



(From photo 
E. Sheldon.) 



152 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



chiefs, including Sitting Bull, Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses 
and American Horse, signed. Red Cloud sent word that he 
would not sign until the soldiers were sent away. In August, 

the forts were aban- 
doned and on Novem- 
ber 6, 1868, Red Cloud 
signed the treaty with 
Father De Smet as a 
witness. 

The signing of the 
treaty of 1868 ended 
the Sioux wars for Red 
Cloud and Spotted Tail. 
From that time each 
of these chiefs tried to 




liuiX6 AT Old IIed Cloud Agency, 1911. 
{From photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



secure the rights of his people in council rather than in war. 
Since the two tribes were now to be fed and clothed by the 
government, a place was to be selected where this should 
be done. The chiefs visited Washington in 1870, and met 
President Grant. In 1871 the old Red Cloud Agency was 
located on the north bank of the North Platte River near 
the Nebraska- Wyoming line about a mile from where Henry, 
Nebraska, now is. Here the Oglalas and Brules were fed 
in 1872. 

In 1873 the Sioux Indians moved from the valley of the 
North Platte to the beautiful White River valley in north- 
western Nebraska. Here two agencies were established, one 
called Red Cloud Agency near the present site of Fort 
Robinson, the other called Spotted Tail Agency about forty 
miles northeast, near the junction of Beaver Creek with the 
White River. For the next five years the valley about these 
two frontier posts was the scene of more exciting events than 
was any other part of Nebraska. 

Gold was found in the Black Hills in 1875. By the 
treaty of 1868 the Black Hills belonged to the Sioux and 
white men were to be kept out. White men would not be 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 153 

kept out after gold had been discovered. Many of the Sioux 
under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse went on the warpath 
again. The Sioux under Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were 
fed by the United States. The two old chiefs remained at 
peace, but hundreds of their young men took rations from 
the United States and then slipped away under cover of night 
to join the hostile Sioux in the north. In 1875, Congress 
voted not to feed the Sioux according to the Fort Laramie 
treaty of 1868 unless they remained north of the Niobrara 
River. In May of that year, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail 
went to Washington again and made an agreement for 
150,000 a year to give up their hunting privilege south of the 
Niobrara. Only half of this sum was paid. Red Cloud was 
urged many times by the warriors who had fought under him 
ten years before to lead them again against the whites. He 
steadily refused. He had been in the East and seen the cities 
full of white people. He had sent his young men over all the 
hunting grounds and he knew that there were not enough 
buffalo to feed his people through another campaign. 

June 25, 1876, was the date of the greatest victory over 
the whites in the history of the Sioux nation. General 
Custer, the boldest Indian fighter in the country, with 260 
men was cut off at the battle of the Little Big Horn in 
Montana. The news was brought into the Red Cloud and 
Spotted Tail agencies by Indian runners. There was in- 
tense excitement among the Oglalas and Brules and it was 
feared that all would join the hostile Sioux. Commissioners 
came from Washington. A great council was held in the 
White River valley in August and September. A new treaty 
was made September 23,' 1876, signed by Red Cloud and 
Spotted Tail and the other chiefs. The Black Hills were 
sold to the white people and the United States agreed to 
issue the Indians more beef, more flour and coffee, sugar and 
beans, until they were able to support themselves. The 
Sioux agreed to give up all their claims to Nebraska and to 
remove to South Dakota, where new agencies would be 



154 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



established. In spite of the signing of this new treaty by 
Red Cloud, General Crook ordered the camp of Red Cloud 
on Chadron Creek to be taken by surprise on October 24th. 
All the ponies of Red Cloud's band were taken and driven 
away where the owners never saw them again. This was 
the hardest blow Red Cloud received in his long career. It 
was an act of war in violation of agreements by the govern- 




Ft. Robinson, Sioux County, Nebraska. Site of Red Cloud Agency 

AND Scene of Important Incidents in Sioux Indian War. 

(From photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 

ment. Its object was to keep Red Cloud's warriors from 
helping the hostile Indians. 

The Sioux soon had reason to see Red Cloud's wisdom in 
refusing to go again on the warpath. General Crook gave 
the hostile Sioux no time to hunt, eat or sleep. In March, 
1877, Spotted Tail went on a mission to the camp of the 
hostile Sioux and over 2,200 of them came in and surrendered 
at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies. In May of the 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 155 

same year Crazy Horse, with his band of 889 ragged and 
starving followers, joined them. 

Crazy Horse was killed on September 5th, by a bayonet- 
thrust while resisting an attempt to put him into prison. 
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail made their third trip to Wash- 
ington in the same month to arrange for the future welfare of 
their people. 

On October 27, 1877, the Sioux bade a final farewell to 
Nebraska as their home. A great caravan of over 5,000 
Indians, with 2,000 cattle and two companies of cavalry 
started, on its march down the White River valley lor its 
winter camp on the Missouri River m South Dakota. While 
on the march 2,000 of the hostile Sioux who had surrendered, 
carrying the corpse of Crazy Horse in a buffalo robe, broke 
into the line and tried in vain to stampede the Oglalas and 
Brules. 

The new Brule agency established in 1878 was named 
Rosebud, and that for the Oglalas estabhshed in 1879 was 
named Pine Ridge. It was significant that they were not 
named for the chiefs, as the old agencies had been. A new 
era began which was one of struggle between the Indian 
agents and the old chiefs. It was the agents' aim to break 
down the power and authority of the chief and to deal di- 
rectly with each Indian. This struggle lasted for twenty- 
five years. Spotted Tail saw its end sooner than did his 
great fellow chief, for on August 5, 1881, he was killed by 
Crow Dog, an Indian of his own tribe. The agent at Rose- 
bud, who had just been engaged in a contest with Spotted 
Tail, wrote of him these words: ''Spotted Tail was a true 
friend to the whites. His influence was always on the side 
of law and order, and to him is greatly due the peace which 
now exists." 

Red Cloud survived his old comrade for many years. He 
was never reconciled to the new system which broke down 
the authority of the chief. He opposed many of the new 
ways and the little frame house a mile from the Pine Ridge 



156 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



agency buildings was the scene of many earnest councils 
during the years which followed. 

He lived to see his people throw off the blanket and adopt 
the white men's clothes. He lived to see the Sioux sun 
dance abolished in 1884. He lived to see the Oglalas and 
Brules settled in log and frame houses, each family on its 
own land. He lived to see all the Sioux children going to 
school, speaking both the English and Sioux languages. He 
lived to take part in 1889 in another great council with the 
United States and to sign a new agreement, which gave 
cattle, tools and seed to all Indians who would farm. He 
lived long enough to receive, in 1889, $28,000 for the ponies 
taken from his band in 1876 by General Crook. He lived to 
see the ghost dancing of 1890 and to hear the echoes of the 
last Sioux battle at Wounded Knee in December of that year. 
He lived to see an order sent out in January, 1902, stopping 
the rations of all able-bodied Sioux men and requiring them 
to go to work on the roads and irrigation ditches at $1.25 for 
an eight-hour day. He lived to see this order enforced in 
spite of the orators who pointed to the Fort Laramie treaty 
of 1868. He lived to see the great Sioux reservation sur- 
veyed and separate farms of 320 
acres each chosen by heads of Indian 
families, with 160 acres for each child 
over 18 and 80 acres for each child 
under 18. He lived long enough to 
have his eyesight fade away, leav- 
ing him in total darkness. He lived 
long enough to know that nearly all 
of the friends of his youth and early 
manhood were gone before, to know 
that the old ways were changed. 
He reached the end of his long 
earthly sojourn December 10, 1909, the last of the long 




Red Cloud's Tent at Pine 
Ridge, 1904 



line of famous Indian chiefs w^^ 



council and on the war- 



TWO SIOUX CHIEFS 157 

path, had struggled bravely against the inevitable advance 
of the white man upon this continent. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What right had each tribe of Indians to the land it claimed? 

2. What is "good luck" and why did the Indians believe so strongly in it? 

3. Why did the Sioux oppose the settlement of their country by the white 

men? Why they more than the Pawnee or Omaha? 

4. How could the white men and the Sioux have lived at peace with each 

other? 

5. What do you think of the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868? Was it fair to 

both Indians and white men? 

6. Which do you more admire, Spotted Tail or Red Cloud? Why? Compare 

them. 

7. Did the United States keep its treaties with the Sioux? 

8. Why did the government try to break the power of the chiefs and deal 

directly with each Indian? 

9. In what sense are the Sioux Nebraska Indians? 



GREAT STORMS 

NOTHING is more terrible during the settlement of a new 
country than a great storm. A long severe winter is 
full of danger even to the bravest and hardiest pioneers. 
Thousands have died of cold and starvation in the settle- 
ment of this country. Every state has its stories of great 
storms and the hardships and suffering which they brought 
to the people. 

Three great storms stand out above all other storms in the 
history of Nebraska. 

The first of these began December 1, 1856, with rain from 
the southwest, but soon the wind changed to the northwest 
and became fiercely cold. The snow fall which followed was 
the deepest ever known since the settlement of Nebraska. 
It was five feet on the level, and in drifts far deeper. This 
first storm lasted three days. Storm after storm followed 
during the winter. As one writer of that time says: ''A 
terrible cold winter set in December 1, 1856, freezing into 
ninety solid blocks of ice all the days of December, January 
and February." 

There were very few settlers in Nebraska in those days. 
Most of them were in the counties near the Missouri River. 
Every one of these counties has its old settlers' stories of the 
''hard winter" of 1857. In Richardson County the first 
December storm drove twenty head of cattle into a valley 
and walled them in with drifting snow. AMien they were 
found by their owner in February most of them were dead, 
the few survivors having fed on the branches of trees. In 
Otoe County deer ran through the streets of Nebraska City 
pursued by the hungry wolves and many settlers lost their 
lives. In Dodge County the sun failed to show his face for 
two months. The ravines, thirty feet deep, were filled with 

158 



GREAT STORMS 159 

snow. A settler was lost in the December storm. His 
funeral was held in April, after the snow had melted. In 
Burt County snow fell for six days and nights without stop- 
ping. Settlers would have starved were it not for the game 
which they caught in the snowdrifts. In Cuming County 
the creeks and rivers were buried by the snow. The set- 
tlers traveled on foot to the Missouri River and hauled back 
upon hand sleds goods to keep their families from perishing. 
All the ravines and hollows were drifted full. The timber 
along the streams was filled with deer, elk and antelope, 
driven in from the prairie. One settler killed over seventy 
with an axe. The crust of snow would bear the weight of a 
man, but these animals with their sharp feet cut through 
and were helpless. On the Oregon trail the snow lay two feet 
deep from October to May between Fort Kearney and Fort 
Laramie and the valleys were filled with the drifts. The 
general testimony of all the old settlers and the records in- 
dicate that the title ''hard winter" belongs to the winter 
of 1856-57. In no winter since has the snow been so deep, 
so badly drifted, or remained so long as in that winter. 

The second great Nebraska storm came at the end of 
winter, instead of the beginning. It had been raining on 
Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873. Just before dark the wind 
changed from the southwest to the northwest, the rain 
changed to sleet, and the sleet to fine snow. At daybreak 
on the 14th, the air was filled with what seemed solid snow. 
It was so wet and driven so swiftly before the wind that it 
was impossible to face it. All day Monday, and Monday 
night, Tuesday, and Tuesday night, the storm increased in 
fury. Dugouts, sod houses, and stables were buried in snow- 
drifts. Nearly all of the stock in some counties was frozen 
to death. There were many cases where settlers took horses, 
cows, pigs and chickens into their houses, where all lived to- 
gether until the storm passed. One settler remembers that 
the snow was as fine as flour and was driven so fiercely before 
the wind that it found every crevice and filled the stables un- 



160 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

til the cattle, tramping to keep it down, had their backs 
forced up through the roofs. Many settlers perished in this 
storm. How many we do not know, for no perfect record 
was kept ; but nearly every county had its victims. 

One of the true stories of this storm is that of the Cooper 
family, then living about ten miles from St. Paul, Howard 
County. The mother and two daughters, Lizzie and Emma, 
were the only ones at home Sunday when the storm came, 
the father and son being away. Mrs. Cooper was not well 
and went to bed early. The two girls sat up keeping fire in 
the fireplace. The wind blew fiercer every hour, sifting the 
fine snow into the house. Then came a furious blast which 
blew the door open, scattered the live coals about the room 
and set the house on fire. While the two girls were putting 
out the fire another fierce gust tore off the roof and left them 
in darkness with the snow filling the room. 

The two girls piled a feather tick on their mother's bed 
and crept under it, one on each side, with their shoes and 
clothing on. 

When daylight came the storm was still raging and snow 
drifting deep in the room. The two girls decided to go to a 
neighbor 's house a mile away and get help for their mother. 
Telling their mother to have courage and keep quiet, the 
girls put on what scanty wraps they could find and t^limbed 
over the wall of the house, for the snow had filled the door- 
way. As soon as they left the house they lost their way. 
The fierce cold wind had no mercy. The snow cut their 
faces. Lizzie, the older girl, threw her arms around Emma 
crying, " Let us pray, " and in the snow the two children knelt 
and asked God to guide them. Then Emma said, ''Come on. 
We must go and get help for mother. This is the way." 

All the day these two girls wandered in the storm. Once 
they found a dugout where potatoes were kept and beat upon 
its locked door, but could not get in. Only a few yards 
away was the house, but when they tried to reach it they 
lost their way and again wandered on. That night they 



GREAT STORMS 161 

scooped a hole in the snow and held each other close to keep 
from freezing. 

In the morning Emma tried to encourage her sister to 
push on. She rubbed her hands and beat her face to rouse 
her. Lizzie started, but fell exhausted and died in the snow 
with her sister watching over her. 

When she knew her sister was dead, Emma pushed on to 
find help for her mother. She kept saying to herself, ^'1 
must not go to sleep. I must not go to sleep;" for she had 
heard that when one was freezing to go to sleep was to die. 
So she kept moving on all through that day and the next. 
Her feet became frozen and her clothes were torn, but she 
stumbled on and fought for life. On Wednesday the sun 
came out and she saw at a little distance the neighbor's 
house she had tried so long to reach. 

The people in the house saw her, brought her in and cared 
for her. Her first words to them were for her mother. 
Searchers found the mother lying frozen to death a short 
distance from her home. Emma lived to womanhood and 
became Mrs. Adolph Goebel of New York. 

The third and last great storm came January 12, 1888. 
The day had been so mild that men went about in their 
shirt-sleeves and cattle grazed in the fields. The air was as 
soft and hazy as in Indian summer. All over the state men 
and stock were abroad in the fields and the school-children 
played out of doors. Suddenly the wind changed to the 
north, blowing more furiously each minute thick blinding 
snow, first in large flakes and later in smaller ones fierce as 
bullets from a gun. There seemed no limit to the fury of the 
wind, nor the increasing density of the driven snow. Men 
driving their teams could not see the horses' heads. The 
roads were blotted out and travelers staggered blindly on not 
knowing where they were going. The storm, and the intense 
cold which followed lasted three days, and was almost imme- 
diately followed by another fierce storm. It was two weeks 
before the news from the farms and ranches began slowly 



162 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

to come into the newspaper offices. Then it was learned that 
the loss of life was the greatest ever known in the West. In 
Dakota over one thousand persons were reported frozen to 
death, and in Nebraska over one hundred. The wind blew 
at the rate of fifty-six miles an hour and the mercury fell 
to thirty-four degrees below zero. In Holt County alone 
more than twenty people lost their lives and one half of the 
live stock in the county perished. 

This great storm of 1888 is known as the school-children's 
storm. Over a great part of Nebraska it came between 
three and four o'clock, just as the children were starting 
from the schoolhouses for home. Many stories of heroism 
in the storm are recorded. One school-teacher, Mrs. Wilson, 
of Runningwater, South Dakota, started from the school- 
house with nine children. All were found frozen to death on 
the prairie when the storm was over. In Dodge County, 
Nebraska, two sisters, thirteen and eight years old, daughters 
of Mrs. Peter Westphalen, started from the schoolhouse 
together. Their widowed mother watched anxiously for 
them but they never came. Their bodies were found lying 
close together in an open field drifted over with snow. The 
older girl had taken off her wraps and put them on her little 
sister. The story of their death told in the newspapers at 
the time was full of pathos. These verses were written to 
their memory: 

'*I can walk no further, sister, I am weary, cold and worn; 
You go on, for you are stronger; they will find me in the morn." 
And she sank, benumbed and weary, with a sobbing cry of woe. 
Dying in the night and tempest; dj'ing in the cruel snow. 

"Try to walk a little farther, soon we'll see the gleaming hght. 
Let me fokl my cloak around you," but her sister cold and white 
With the snowdrift for a pillow, fell in d3'ing sleep's repose, 
While the snow came whirling, sifting, till above her form it rose. 

Search in western song and story, and discover if 3'ou can, 

Braver, grander, nobler action in the history of man; 

Than the silent heroism of the child who, in her woe, 

Wrapped her cloak about her sister, as she struggled through the snow. 



. GREAT STORMS 163 

Three young women school-teachers became famous as 
Nebraska heroines of this storm. They were Miss Louise 
Royce of Plainview, Pierce County, Miss Etta Shattuck of 
Inman, Holt County, 



^f<' 



JM" 



and Miss Minnie Free- 
man of Mira Valley, 
Valley County. Miss 
Royce started from her 
schoolhouse with three 
children to go to a house 
only a few yards distant. 
They lost their way and 

the children were frozen ] „ 

to death. Miss Royce Pioneer Seeking Shelter 

after being out all night 

was rescued the next day so badly frozen that one of her limbs 
was taken off. Miss Shattuck sent her children safely home 
at the first signs of the storm, but lost her own way and wan- 
dered to a haystack. She crept into the hay and lay there 
three days before she was discovered by a farmer, coming to 
get hay for his stock. Two of her limbs were frozen and had 
to be taken off. She was removed to her home at Seward, 
where she died a few weeks later. Miss Minnie Freeman 
tied her school-children together in single file with herself 
at the head of the line, and thus guided them through the 
storm to the nearest farm-house where all were sheltered. 
People everywhere read with deep interest the story of the 
heroism of these school-teachers. Thousands of dollars were 
raised by the newspapers to reward them and to care for the 
other victims. 

In the annals of Nebraska will always be remembered 
the ''Hard Winter'' of '57, the ''Easter Storm" of '73 and 
the "Great Blizzard" of '88. 



164 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



QUESTIONS 

1. What difference between these storms and the storm described by Whittier 

in "Snowbound?" 

2. Where is a snowstorm more beautiful, in city or country? Why? 

3. Where is it more dangerous? Why? 

4. Why are children so fond of the snow? 

5. How have conditions in a great snowstorm been changed since the pioneer 

days? 



OLD FORT KEARNY 



OLD FORT KEARNY was built in 1847 at Nebraska 
City. Its log blockhouse overlooked the Missouri 
River. Soldiers returning across the plains from the war 
with Mexico wintered at the fort. 
The very next year its name was 
taken away and given to the new 
fort called at first, Fort Childs, 
two hundred miles west in the 
Platte valley. The new Fort Kear- 
ny soon came to be the old Fort 
Kearny in the minds of travelers 
across the plains. It was the one 
fort between the Missouri River 
and the mountains in the early 
years. It was the place where 
other roads united with the Oregon 
Trail. The wide Platte vallev 




Old Fort Kearny Block 
House at Nebraska City. 
(Drawing by Miss Martha 
Turner.) 




Old Earthworks at Fort Kearny, 1907 



about the fort was the 
camping ground of thou- 
sands of wagons every 
summer. Some days over 
five hundred ox teams 
passed the fort. The 
overland stage and pony 
express stations were 
here. 

When the Indian war 
of 1864 broke out Fort 



Kearny became the central point for the army. The First 
Nebraska cavalry was placed there. The wagon trains 
going west were not allowed to proceed until there were 

165 



166 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




fifty wagons or more. Then they went on together through 
the wild country beyond. 

Just west of the fort there grew up a village called Doby- 
town. It was a wild, rough place where all kinds of bad 

characters lived. When 
General Sherman rode 
through Dobytown dur- 
ing the Sioux war he 
was hissed by some of 
these people who fa- 
vored the South. The 
old general remembered 
the insult and soon after 
an order came from 
Washington to abandon 
the fort. On May 17, 
1871, the last soldiers 
departed and with 
them went the last support of Dobytown. 

Fort Kearny is fallen into ruins. Mounds of earth now 
mark the place where its buildings stood. Low ridges and 
trenches almost filled are all that now remain of its outer 
works. The deep furrows of the old trails are blotted out 
by the plow and harrow. About the old parade ground giant 
Cottonwood trees planted in 1848 stand like soldiers on guard. 
At one corner of the parade ground a fallen cottonwood 
marks the site of the First Nebraska headquarters. Five 
miles away the city of Kearney, full of life and bustle, looks 
across the Platte River at its namesake the deserted fort. 
So long as the story of early Nebraska and the memory of 
the Oregon Trail endure, the name of Fort Kearny will be 
r'^membprpd. 



Fallen Cottonwood Tree on Site of 
Headquarters 1st. Nebraska Regi- 
ment AT Ft. Kearny, 1864, as Seen 
IN 1907. {From photograph by A. E. 
Sheldon.) 



QUESTIONS 

1. Locate the first and the second Fort Kearny on the map. 

2. Why was the village near Fort Kearny called Dobytown? 

3. Why is Fort Kearny on the south side of the Platte and the present 

city of Kearney on the north side? 



FORT LARA]\IIE 




Fort Laramie in 1848 



FORT LARAMIE, Nebraska Territory, was the most 
noted name on the map of the West from 1842 to 1863. 
Although now the old fort is in Wyoming forty miles be- 
yond the Nebraska state 
line, the memories of its 
early days belong to 
Nebraska history. 

The early fur traders 
founded Fort Laramie. 
One of them, indeed, 
died to give his name 
to the Laramie River 
from which the fort was 
named. As far back as 

1834 the first fur trader's post, called Fort WilHam, was 
built in the forks of the Laramie and North Platte rivers. 
By the year 1846 the name Fort Laramie was in common 
use. It was a new fort with walls twenty feet high built of 
sunbaked clay bricks. It stood on a little hill near the 
Laramie River about a mile above where that river joined 
the Platte. Here the hunters and trappers for the American 
Fur Company brought their furs and here Indians came to 
trade. About 1849 the United States bought the fort from 
the fur company and it soon became the chief post in the 
Indian country. All the travelers on the Oregon Trail 
longed for sight of Fort Laramie. It was 667 miles from the 
Missouri River. Here the plains and the mountains met. 
Here the wagon trains rested and refitted before starting 
on their journey through the mountains. Near here the 
great councils were held with the Indians, and the historic 
treaties of 1851 and 1868 were made. Great buildings were 

167 



168 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



built here by the government to shelter soldiers and supplies. 
From this fort the regiments marched to the Indian wars 
and here were brought many of the dead from those cam- 
paigns. It was the great station on the world's great 
highway. 




Ruins of Army Hospital at Fort Laramie 

In 1891 Fort Laramie was abandoned. To-day its ruins 
cover forty acres of land. Roofless buildings and crum- 
bling walls are everywhere. Deep gulhes over the hills 
mark the route of the Oregon Trail. A tiny white school- 
house stands near the corner of the old parade ground, now 
grown over with grass, and a dozen school-children now 
laugh and play where once the soldiers marched at command. 
The bodies of the dead are removed from the graves on 
the hillside to rest in the cemetery at Fort McPherson. The 
old life of the Oregon Trail and the Indian wars is gone 
never to return, but the name of Fort Laramie will always 
remain in the history of early Nebraska. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What was there in the location of Fort Laramie which made it become the 

chief army post in the Indian country? 

2. Why did the travelers on the Oregon Trail rest and refit at Fort Laramie? 

3. Why are the soldiers no longer kept in forts like Kearny and Laramie? 



THE STORY OF THE PONCAS 

WHEN the first white men came up the Missouri River 
they found a Httle tribe of Indians Uving in that 
beautiful part of Nebraska by the mouth of the Niobrara 
which is now Knox and Boyd counties. They found clear 
flowing streams, wooded hills, grassy valleys and back of 
them the buffalo prairies. There were less than a thousand 




PoNCA Land as Painted for Maximilian, 1833. {From Thwaites's 
"Early Western Travels." Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 

people in the little tribe. They were tall and fine looking 
and from the first were friendly to the white men and were 
never at war with them. Their land lay between the Sioux 
country on the west and the Pawnee and Omaha country on 
the south and east. The language they spoke was related 
to the Sioux language but more like that of the Omahas. 
They were often at war with the Sioux, but generally at peace 
with the Omahas, so much so that a great many of their 

169 



170 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

young men and women were intermarried with the Omahas. 
Although such a httle tribe, they had their own name, Punka 
or Ponca; their own traditions; and they had hved so long 
in that part of Nebraska where the first white men found 
them that they had no other home, only stories of a far-off 
time when their fathers had come up the Missouri and 
settled at the mouth of the Niobrara. 

After a time white settlers began to come into the Ponca 
country, to take land and kill off the game. In 1858 the 
United States made a treaty with the Poncas by the terms of 
which the Poncas gave up all their land except that part be- 
tween the Niobrara River and Ponca Creek. The richest of 
their land below the mouth of the Niobrara was opened to 
the white settlers. The part which the Poncas were to keep 
was on the border of the Sioux, their old enemies ' country, 
but the United States promised in the treaty to protect the 
Poncas, to pay them money every year, to build them 
houses and give them schools for their children. 

Two years after this treaty the Sioux made a raid on the 
Poncas and stole more than half of their horses. The 
Ponca hunting ground, where they used to kill buffalo, was 
covered with Sioux hunting parties and the Poncas could 
not get their winter supply of meat. In 1863 a drouth came 
on the land and their patches of corn were a failure. Even 
the wild plums dried on the trees and the Poncas hunted 
over the plains for wild turnips and ate cornstalks to keep 
from starving. 

Then a party of Poncas went to visit their friends, the 
Omahas. There were four men, six women, three boys and 
two girls. Some drunken white soldiers killed three women 
and one girl, burned their tents and drove away their six 
ponies. Still the Poncas remained at peace with the white 
people. 

In 1868 the United States made a great treat 5^ with the 
Sioux Indians at Fort Laramie. In that treaty by some 
mistake all of the Ponca land was given to the Sioux, the 



THE STORY OF THE PONCAS 171 

bitter and lifelong enemies of the Poncas. This was done 
without the consent or knowledge of the Poncas. It took 
away from them their homes, their gardens and the graves 
of their fathers, which they had defended against the Sioux 
for hundreds of years, and made a present of them to their 
deadly foes, the Sioux. Nothing so cruel or unjust was 
ever done by the United States to another tribe of Indians. 
And this was done to a tribe which was always the friend of 
the white men. General Sherman, one of the commissioners 
who made the treaty at Fort Laramie, said he did not know 
that this had been done until long afterward. The Poncas 
did not know that it had been done until the Sioux warriors 
raided them and tauntingly shouted, ''This land belongs to 
us. Get off." The Poncas had no place to go and remained 
upon their old reserve even though in daily danger from the 
Sioux. 

During the two years, 1869 and 1870, they built sixty log 
cabins and put out crops. Then the Missouri River rose and 
washed away their village site. They had to tear down 
their cabins and carry them back half a mile to make a new 
village. The next year after this the tribe put three hundred 
acres into crops. The grasshoppers came that year and the 
next and ate the crops. 

The year 1876 was a year of great excitement on the 
Nebraska border. Gold had been found in the Black Hills 
and the white men wanted to go there after it. The Sioux 
were fighting to keep the white men out. 

The order was given to remove the Ponca Indians ''with 
their consent" from their old home to the Indian Territory. 
An agent came to the Poncas and told them that they must 
send their chiefs with him to the new place to pick out a 
home. Standing Bear and nine other chiefs went. They 
did not like the land and would not select a place. They 
said to him: "The water is bad. We cannot live here." 
The agent told them that they must pick out a place for the 
tribe or he would not take them home. They refused. He 



172 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



left them there a thousand miles from their Nebraska home 
in the winter with no money. Standing Bear told this 
story : 

''We started for home on foot. At night we slept in 
haystacks. We hardly lived until morning, it was so cold. 
We had nothing but our blankets. We took the ears of 
corn that had dried in the fields. We ate it raw. The soles 
of our moccasins were out. We were barefoot in the snow. 
We were nearly dead when we reached the Otoe reservation 
in Nebraska. It had been fifty days. We stayed there ten 
days to get strong and the Otoes gave each of us a pony. 
The agent for the Otoes said he had a telegram that the 
chiefs had run away, not to give us food or shelter or any 
help." 

The Otoe agent afterward said when the Ponca chiefs 
came into his office that they left the prints of their feet in 
blood upon the floor. 

When the chiefs reached their own homes at the 
mouth of the Niobrara they found there the agent who 
had left them in the Indian Territory. He had sol- 
diers with him and was 
making the Ponca peo- 
ple pack up their goods 
in order to start for the 
new country. The sol- 
diers put the women and 
children into wagons 
with what few things 
they could carry and 
started the teams for 
Indian Territory. This 
was on May 21, 1877. 
The Poncas were sad and 
Some 




Standing Bear and Family ix 19U4. 
{From photograph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



It was very rainy that spring, 
heart-broken at leaving their old Nebraska homes. 
of them were sick. Prairie Flower, a daughter of Standing 
Bear and wife of Shines White, died of consumption at Mil- 



THE STORY OF THE PONCAS 173 

ford, Nebraska, and was buried there. The women of the 
village dressed the body for the grave and brought flowers. 
The Indians were deeply affected by this kindness. Many 
children died as the tribe moved south across Nebraska and 
Kansas. A tornado upset their wagons. Part of the time 
they were out of food. One Indian became insane and 
tried to kill White Eagle, a chief, for letting so much trouble 
come upon his people. 

At the end of a three months' journey the tribe reached 
the Indian Territory. They had left dry log cabin homes, 
their own plowed fields and beautiful clear flowing streams 
and springs. In the new land they were set down on un- 
broken prairies with nothing but their wagons and tents. 
The water was very bad. All their cattle and many of their 
horses died. The people were homesick and their hearts 
were breaking. They talked all the time of their beautiful 
home in Nebraska. The first winter one hundred and fifty- 
eight out of seven hundred and sixty-eight died. 

Standing Bear's son was among those who died. Before 
his death he begged his father to take his body to Nebraska 
and bury it there. In midwinter Standing Bear and thirty 
of his band broke away from the Indian Territory and set 
out for Nebraska carrying the body of the dead young man. 
They had a long, hard journey of three months and reached 
the reservation of their friends, the Omahas, in the early 
spring. The Omahas gave them some land to put into 
crops. While they were plowing it the United States 
soldiers came and put them under arrest. They had orders 
to carry them back to the Indian Territory. 

The story of their arrest was printed in the newspapers 
and friends in Omaha came to their aid. Dr. George L. 
Miller, editor of the Herald took up their cause. Two lead- 
ing lawyers,— John L. Webster and Andrew J. Poppleton, — 
defended them without pay. There was a trial in the 
United States court at Omaha. Standing Bear made a 
speech to the court through an interpreter, which touched 



174 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

all hearts. Judge Dundy decided that Standing Bear and 
his band should be set free. There was great rejoicing in the 
hearts of the Indians and their friends. 

After they were set free by Judge Dundy, Standing Bear 
and his party settled on an island in the Niobrara River which 
was part of their old reservation and had been overlooked 
when the United States gave their old country to the Sioux. 
Here they were joined by others from the Indian Territory 
until they numbered a hundred and thirty. White friends 
furnished them tools and they began to farm again. Stand- 
ing Bear was called to go east and tell the Indians ' story to 
great audiences. In 1890 peace was made between the Sioux 
and the Ponca tribes and the Sioux gave back to the Poncas 
part of their old lands on the Niobrara. About one third 
the tribe came back, the remainder staying in the Indian 
Territory. Standing Bear lived to an old age and died at 
his home on the Niobrara on September 3, 1908. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What right had the United States to give the Ponca land to the Sioux? 

2. Would you be willing to have the Poncas taken from their old homes in 

this way in order to get a home for yourself? 

3. Which would be better — to submit hke the Poncas or to figh' like the 

Sioux? 

4. Tell what you think of Standing Bear from this story. 

5. Ought an Indian to have the same rights in this countrv as a white man? 

Why? 

6. What should the people of Nebraska do for the Indian tribes whose old 

homes were in our state? 



BRIGHT EYES 



(Instha Theamba) 

BRIGHT EYES was an Omaha Indian girl, who became 
widely known through her efforts to help her people. 
She was born at Bellevue in 1854, the daughter of Joseph 
and Mary LaFlesche, and united in her person the blood of 
the Indian, the French and the American settlers of Ne- 
braska. Her father was a chief of 
the Omaha tribe, the son of a French- 
man and a Ponca Indian woman. 
Her mother was daughter of Nicomi, 
an Indian woman of the loway 
tribe, and Dr. John Gale, a surgeon 
of the United States army. 

When Bright Eyes was born she 
was named Yosette or Susette by 
her parents. It was not until years 
later she received her second name. 
Her father's Indian name was 
Esta-maza or ''Iron Eyes." Some 
one who knew this looked at the daughter and said, ''Her 
name should be Bright Eyes, or in Omaha language, Instha 
Theamba." So she came to be known by the name "Bright 
Eyes" and to sign it to her writings. 

Bright Eyes grew up on the Omaha Indian reservation 
with the other Indian children. She spoke nothing but the 
Omaha language until she was eight years old. Then she 
went to the mission school on the reservation. She learned 
English faster than any other child in the school and was 
soon able to read and write. Every one loved her because she 
was so bright and cheerful and winning in her ways. When 

175 




Bright Eyes. (Instha 
Theamba) Mrs. T. H. 

TiBBLES 



176 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

she was fifteen she was asked what she most wished for a 
Christmas present and rephed, a good education. This was 
told to the president of a woman's seminary at Ehzabeth, 
New Jersey. Very soon Bright Eyes was invited to attend 
school there, and became at once one of the best students, 
beloved by her teachers and by the young white women who 
were her schoolmates. At the end of four years she graduat- 
ed and came back to the Omaha reservation. 

The Omaha Indians were very poor. Grasshoppers came 
and ate their crops. Part of the tribe lived in the old Indian 
way and kept up the old Indian customs. There were no 
pleasant rooms and beautiful books and pictures and educat- 
ed girl companions as there were at the school at Ehzabeth, 
New Jersey. The wild game was fast going. The Indians 
had not yet learned how to farm as the white men did. 
Idleness and its bad results were seen in the tribe. There 
was little to make life happy for a bright girl fresh from 
study in an eastern school. 

One day Bright Eyes found out that there was a law 
which said that any Indian qualified to teach school should 
have the preference in schools on the reservation. She at 
once set out to get leave to teach school near her home. 
After great obstacles had been overcome, she began teaching 
in a little cabin at twenty dollars a month. This gave her 
a chance to help the people of her tribe in many ways toward 
a better way of living. She was very busy in this work when 
Standing Bear and the Ponca Indians who had escaped from 
Oklahoma came to the Omaha tribe for help in 1879. 

Bright Eyes at once became the champion of the poor 
Poncas. She wrote to the newspapers the story of their 
wrongs. She visited Omaha in their behalf. While thus 
engaged she became acquainted with Mr. T. H. Tibbies, an 
editorial writer on the Omaha Herald, and later, in 1882, 
became his wife. The next year she was asked by people 
interested in the Indians to go east and tell the story of 
Nebraska Indians and their needs. For the next five years, 



BRIGHT EYES 177 

accompanied by her husband and Chief Standing Bear, she 
spoke to great audiences in the eastern states and in Europe. 
Ever>-where the people were charmed with her presence and 
mterested in her story. The poet Longfellow asked to meet 
her and when he saw her said, ^^This is Minnehaha." Lead- 
mg men took up the cause of the Indian and their rights were 
better protected. 

At the end of her years of lecturing Bright Eyes returned 
to Nebraska. Her summers usually were spent on the 
Omaha reservation among her own people. During the 
remainder of the year she hved in Omaha or Lincoln, where 
Mr. Tibbies was engaged in editorial work. She wrote much 
herself and had the most constant interest in the progress of 
the Omahas and other tribes of Indians. During the last 
Sioux war in 1890 she was at Pine Ridge. She died May 26, 
1903, at her own home on the Omaha reservation in sight of 
the beautiful Logan River and the hills where her people had 
hunted in the early days, leaving the memory of a good and 
true life spent in making all life which she touched brighter 
and better. 

QUESTIONS 

i' S{^^^ inspiration is there in this story for any Nebraska girl? 
2. What do you admire most in Bright Eyes' character? Why? 
6. Did she belong more to the Indian or to the white race? 



THE HERD LAW 

WHEN the first settlers came to Nebraska they settled 
along the streams where there was thnber and water. 
They farmed very small fields and fenced them, turning 
their horses, cattle and other stock loose to go where they 
pleased and find food, water and shelter. It was a very easy 
way to raise stock and the longer one raised it in that way the 
more he thought it was the only way. 

All about the early settlers ' cabins were miles upon miles 
of grass-land free for everybody. Cattle, sheep and horses 
would find the best places to feed and stay there as long as 
they liked. When they were thirsty they would go to the 
running water to drink. Often they would lie down in the 
shade of trees and rest during the heat of the day. All the 
owner had to do was to ride around them once in a while to 
see that all were there. Hogs also ran loose and lived chiefly 
on acorns. Where there were no acorns they ate rushes 
which grew thickly in the valleys and their ready noses found 
roots to dig everywhere. 

A good many of the earl}^ settlers liked to hunt. There 
was plenty of game. After a settler had his crop in he could 
go hunting and after he had it gathered he could go hunting 
again. His stock would take care of itself while he was gone. 

After a while all the land with wood and water in each 
neighborhood was taken. Settlers kept on coming. Some 
of them went on farther west to get land with wood and wa- 
ter. Some of them took the rich grass land which the first 
settlers had passed by. They had no timber to fence with 
and they did not wish to fence. They broke out larger 
fields and began to farm on a larger scale. When the stock 
running loose got into their crops there was trouble. The 
settlers on the prairie said that every man should take care 

178 



THE HERD LAW 



179 



of his own stock and keep them out of the crops. The set- 
tlers along the streams said that every man should fence his 
crop and all should let their stock run. So they disputed and 
sometimes fought. 

More settlers came in and the settlements spread rapidly 
west from the Missouri River and away from the timber along 




Herd L nV Act of 1870. {Photo from original in Statehouse.) 



the streams. There were some settlements where everyone 
wanted the stock kept up and some where all wanted the 
crops fenced. Laws began to be passed that sheep and hogs 
should not run at large. A little later laws were passed that 
horses and cattle should not run at large in the night. Then 
laws were passed making owners of stock liable for damages 
done by it in certain counties only. The people divided into 
two parties, those who wished to raise crops and those who 



180 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

wished to raise stock. The dispute grew warm in all the 
settlements. 

Finally in the year 1870 so many thousand settlers were 
coming that the legislature met in special session at the call 
of Governor Butler and passed the first general herd law. 
Under it everyone had to keep his stock from the crops of 
other people or pay damages and anyone finding stock in his 
crop might take it up and hold it until the- damages were 
paid. This was called the "herd law," because the best way 
found to keep stock from the crops was to herd it. Some 
parts of the state were excepted from this law. The next 
year the law was changed so that all the state came under the 
herd law unless the people of a county voted to have a fence 
law in that county. 

This has been the law of Nebraska since 1871. It has 
made it possible for poor people who could not fence to raise 
crops and make homes on the prairie. With this law the 
settler could plant a crop anywhere and harvest all he could 
raise. Without it he could harvest only what he could pro- 
tect from roaming stock. No law has helped more than this 
one in the settlement of our state and although the need of 
it is no longer felt, the good that it has done abides with us, 
giving each man the right to reap where he sows. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What differences between farming in the early days and now? 

2. Who has better right to use of the land, the stockman or the farmer? 

Why? 

3. How has the herd law helped Nebraska? 

4. Do we need it now? Why? 



TWO CROWS 



(Cahae Numba) 

TWO CROWS was for many years a leading chief of the 
Omaha tribe. He was tall, strong and very active even 
when he became an old man. He w^as born about the year 
1820, and died at his home among the Blackbird Hills about 
the year 1895. He was a firm friend of the white people 
during all his long life. He fought 
in many battles with the Sioux and 
the Pawnees and good fortune 
kept him safe through many great 
dangers. 

Two Crows was famed in the 
tribe for his wit and shrewdness of 
speech. This became more and 
more marked as years went on and 
in the councils all the Indians lis- 
tened eagerly to hear what Two 
Crows would say, for they knew 

that he would give some sharp, keen point to the talk. After 
the Omahas had settled on their land where they now live, 
many white men who had married Indian wives came 
and settled there too. Other persons who had both white 
and Indian blood also had settled there, because the land 
was very black and rich, and there were many beautiful 
springs and clear streams of water flowing through it, and 
plenty of timber for fuel and for building purposes. The old- 
fashioned Indians became very jealous of these ^' white Indi- 
ans'^ and at last called a great council of the tribe to talk it 
over. One chief after another rose and told the council how 
much trouble the white people made them. They said the 

181 




Two Crows (Cahae Numba) 



182 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Great Father gave the land to the Indians and the white 
people had no right to be there. They all said what a shame 
it was for the Omahas to marry with any other people, and 

that none but the pure blood Oma- 
ha Indians had any right to the 
land. After they had all talked 
until they were tired and the In- 
dians had agreed to all they said, 
Two Crows, who was then a very 
old man, rose slowly and said : 

'^My friends, I agree with all 
that you say to-day. You have 
said it very wisely and very well. 
None but the pure blood Omahas 
have any right to this land. All the 
others ought to move off at once. Now, you all know that my 
family and Wajepa 's family are the only two families of pure 
Omaha blood in the tribe. All the rest of you have got a 
little Ponca blood, or a little Sioux blood, or a little loway 
or Otoe blood mixed in. So now all of you move off the 
land and Wajepa and I will keep it for the pure Omahas." 
This unexpected turn broke up the council. What Two 
Crows said was true. In the Omaha tribe, a very small 
tribe, it had been the custom for many years for some of the 
young men to take their wives from the neighboring tribes. 
The result was that in time all the f amiUes but two had in- 
termarried. This was very well known to all the Indians 
and as no one could deny what Two Crows said the dis- 
contented Indians were very glad to drop the matter. 



Wajepa. {From photograph 
collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 



2. 



QUESTIONS 

Was the idea that none but pure blood Omahas should have the land a 

good one? 
Why did the other Omaha Indians who spoke for this idea refuse to accept 

it after Two Crows favored it? 
Who are Americans in this country? 



THE GRASSHOPPERS 

GRASSHOPPERS were among the worst enemies of the 
early settlers of Nebraska. They were not the common 
green or yellow kind which you see jumping in the fields to- 
day, nor yet the red, yellow and black winged '^ dusty road- 
ers" which boys chase down the lane. These were the 
Rocky Mountain grasshoppers, with slender bodies, light 
gray wings and enormous appetites. Their home was on 
the high plains and among the hills at the foot of the great 
mountains of the West. Here they lived and raised their 
families. In dry years there were more children and less 
food at home. Then they assembled and flew away in great 
swarms to the east and south. They traveled hundreds of 
miles. Sometimes in clear, warm moonlight they flew all 
night. More often they settled down late in the afternoon 
to rest and feed, and pursued their journey on the morrow. 

It was a sad day for the settlers where the grasshoppers 
lighted. Eight times between 1857 and 1875 some parts of 
our state were visited by them, but the great grasshopper 
raid came on July 20th, 21st and 22d, 1874. Suddenly, 
along the entire frontier of Nebraska, Kansas, Dakota and 
Minnesota, the air was filled with grasshoppers. There 
were billions of them in the great clouds which darkened the 
sun. The vibration of their wings filled the ear with a roar- 
ing sound like a rushing storm, followed by a deep hush as 
they dropped to the earth and began to devour the crops. 

All the corn was eaten in a single day. Where green fields 
stood at sunrise nothing remained at night but stumps of 
stalks swarming with hungry hoppers struggling for the last 
bite. They stripped the garden patches bare. They gnawed 
great holes in carpets and rugs put out to save favorite 
plants. The buds and bark of fruit trees were consumed. 

183 



184 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



They followed potatoes and onions into the earth. When 
they had finished the gardens and green crops they attacked 
the wheat and oats in the shock and the wild grass in the 
unplowed fields. Only two green crops escaped them, 
broomcorn and sorghum cane. They did not seem to have 
a sweet eyetooth. Everywhere the earth was covered with 




In Grasshopper Days. {From photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 



a gray mass of struggling, biting grasshoppers. Turkeys and 
chickens feasted on them. Dogs and pigs learned to eat 
them. It was hard to drive a team across a field because 
the swarm of grasshoppers flew up in front and struck the 
horses in the face with such force. 

We thought when they were filled they would fly away. 
Not at all. They liked us so well they concluded to leave 
their children with us. The mother grasshoppers began to 
pierce the earth with holes and fill the holes with eggs. Each 



THE GRASSHOPPERS 185 

one laid about one hundred eggs. Then they died and the 
ground was covered with their dead bodies. 

Most of the people on the frontier were very poor. It 
was ^^hard times'' even before the grasshoppers came. 
There was a great panic in the land. Many settlers had 
nothing to live on during the winter but their sod corn and 
garden. These were gone. It looked hke starvation. The 
future held no hope, for the very soil was filled with eggs 
which would hatch a hundred times as many grasshoppers 
the next spring. Those were the darkest days for the Ne- 
braska pioneers. Some sold or gave away their claims and 
went east. Their covered wagons used to pass with this 
painted on the canvas: 

''eaten out by grasshoppers, 
going back east to live with wife 's folks." 

During the fall and winter those men brave enough to 
stay took their teams and worked wherever they could get 
a job in the older settlements. Some hunted game and lived 
as the Indians did on dried buffalo meat, trading the robes 
for other supplies. Relief funds were raised farther east and 
food, seed and clothing distributed to those not too proud to 
apply for them. Thus the dark winter of 1874-75 was lived 
through. 

In the spring the settlers sowed their small grain and 
millions of young grasshoppers hatched to eat it. These 
httle fellows could not fly. They could only hop short hops. 
So the settlers made ditches and drove them in. Windrows 
of straw were laid across the fields. The young grasshoppers 
crawled into the straw to get warm and the settlers set it on 
fire. Bushels of them were caught in wide shallow pans with 
kerosene in the bottom which were set low and drawn across 
the fields. Nature hielped the settlers. It was a cold rainy 
spring which froze the young brood. Little parasites bored 
holes in the eggs and in the little fellows. The birds, then 



186 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

as now the farmer 's best friends, came from the south and 
joined in the good work of fighting grasshoppers. 

For the next two or three years there were some grass- 
hoppers and the fear of more along the frontier. Then the 
Rocky Mountain grasshoppers disappeared from the settle- 
ments. They have never been seen in such vast numbers 
since and the hard times they brought on the land will prob- 
ably never again return. Those who left their claims have 
wished many times that they had stayed by their farms, which 
seemed so worthless in those early years. Those who held 
on to their land through hardship and suffering, with hearts 
strong and faith firm in the future of Nebraska, have lived 
to see their later years made glad by generous crops and hap- 
py homes where children asking for stories of the long ago 
are told the story of the dark days when the grasshoppers 
came. 

QUESTIONS 

1. In what respects are the migrations of grasshoppers like those of men? 

2. Is there room enough in the world for all the insects and all the people? 

Why? 

3. Who in your neighborhood can tell true stories of the grasshopper days? 

What have you heard of them? 

4. Why do we beUeve the grasshoppers will never again come in such vast 

numbers? 



LOST IN THE SAND HILLS 



THE great Sand Hills section of western Nebraska is in 
the shape of an open fan. The handle of the fan is in 
Hayes and Dundy counties near the southwest corner of the 
state, the broad wings 
of the fan extend into 
parts of Cherry, Sher- 
idan, Holt, Rock, 
Antelope and Pierce 
counties, reaching the 
northern border of the 
state. The center of 
this sand hills fan is in 
southern Cherry and 
Thomas counties. Here 
extend for many miles 




The Sand Hills. {From photograph by 
Dr. G. E. Condra.) 



in every direction great billows of sandy soil. Until closely 
studied all of the landscapes look alike, for each sand hill 
seems like each other sand hill, and the little vales which 
lie between are all sisters of the same age. The sand drifts 
and slides about with each gust of wind. There are no 
great landmarks to serve as guides. If one chmbs to the 
top of the highest hill in sight, everywhere is a confused 
medley of hills and hollows extending as far as eye can see. 
It is as though in an ocean tossed by a great storm the 
waves suddenly had been changed to sand. 

In the early years of exploration and settlement the sand 
hills were regarded as a dangerous region. Many stories 
are told of hunters and explorers who were lost among these 
hills. In more than one place human skeletons have been 
found, telling their mute story of a losing struggle with hun- 
ger and thirst in these treacherous wilds. 

187 



188 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

One of the most thrilling incidents of frontier days oc- 
curred in the sand hills of Thomas County in 1891. In 
March of that year a German family named Haumann set- 
tled near Thedford. There were nine or ten children in the 
family. The eldest girl, Hannah, went to work for Mr. Gil- 
son, a neighbor who lived about a mile and a half away. It 
was her custom to come home on Sunday and spend a happy 
day with her brothers and sisters. On Sunday, May 10th, 
she did not come home as usual, because Mr. Gilson was 
away and Mrs. Gilson wished Hannah to stay with her for 
company. This made the other children unhappy, and 
Tillie and Retta coaxed their mother to let them go over to 
the Gilson home to visit their sister. Tillie was eight years 
old and Retta was four. After dinner Mrs. Haumann let 
them go, telling them to stay an hour and then come 
straight home. They reached Mr. Gilson 's safely and about 
four o 'clock started, hand in hand, to return home. At this 
season the sand hills are beautiful with grasses and wild 
flowers, and the two children left their path and ran eagerly 
to gather those near by. They saw others still more beauti- 
ful a little farther off, so they laughed and ran on and on to 
gather them until the path was lost and the great sea of sand 
hills stretched before them wave upon wave. Lost upon this 
sea, they wandered on. 

Night came and brought no children to the Haumann 
home. At daybreak the next morning the neighbors were 
searching the hills. Word had been sent to Thedford and 
from there to the surrounding country. Although it was the 
busy season of the year, men left their fields and herds and 
tramped or rode over the hills and hollows looking every- 
where for the two little girls. Monday afternoon jiist be- 
fore sundown they found their trail. That night Mr. 
Stacey with a party of searchers camped on the trail. As 
soon as it was light they followed the children's tracks, 
sometimes rapidly, often more slowly and not infrequently 
upon their hands and knees. The story of the children's 



LOST IN THE SAND HILLS 189 

wanderings and weariness was written in the prints made on 
the sand and grass along the way. Here TiUie had carried 
Retta — here they had walked side by side — here they had 
sat down to rest — here they were up again and pushing 
bravely on to find their home. 

Tuesday night the searchers camped again by the side of 
the trail. They did not know until too late that they and 
the children were only a little distance apart that night. 

Wednesday morning they found where Tillie and Retta 
had passed the night lying close by each other on the sand. 
Here the trail grew hard to follow and much time was lost. 
Meanwhile the women at Thedford were helping in their 
homes, preparing food and coffee which they sent to the men 
on the trail. The searchers found the work anxious and 
nerve-racking. At times the little footprints were plain and 
clear and they hastened to overtake the children. A little 
farther on the light sand had sifted across and left no trace 
to follow. The poor mother could not join in the search, for 
she had two children younger than Retta, one a baby, so she 
waited at home from hour to hour for news of her lost 
children. 

While the searchers followed, the two children wandered 
on, traveling when awake almost constantly. If they had 
only waited they would soon have been found, but their 
minds were filled with the thought of home while their feet 
carried them ever farther away with each weary step. On 
Wednesday morning Tillie told Retta to wait at the foot of 
a big hill while she went to the top to see if there was a house 
in sight. When she reached the top she seems to have seen 
a larger hill, a common impression as one looks out over that 
country, and went on to get the wider view from that. 
Retta thought that she would meet her sister more quickly 
by going around the hill, and so started on. Thus they were 
separated, never to meet again. About noon of this day the 
searching party, which included Mr. Haumann, Mr. Stacey, 
Mr. Maseburg and Dr. Edmunds, found Retta carrying one 



d 



190 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

little shoe with its sole worn through, while the other had been 
dropped on the trail. Both of the girls had worn new shoes 
when they left home that Sunday. Very tenderly the little 
girl was cared for by the doctor and the others. She had 
wandered so long without food or w^ater that her mind was 
affected for many days. She said that they saw a prairie 
fire and went to it in hope of finding some one, but no one was 
there. 

The search for Tillie went on. From Dunning, thirty 
miles east of Thedford, a party of searchers started on 
Wednesday, the day on which Retta was found. They 
formed in a long line across the hills to intercept her, for the 
children had wandered east. On Sunday, May 17th, the 
Dunning party found the lost girl. She had taken off her 
apron, spread it over some rose bushes, laid herself on the 
sand beneath and died. Her body was placed on a hand car 
and taken to Thedford. Her parents did not recognize their 
child except by her clothing. She was wasted to skin and 
bones and her fair tender flesh was burned black by exposure. 
All the neighborhood came to her funeral and w^ept with her 
family as the wornout little body was laid to rest. 

That country is settled now and fences stretch every- 
where across the hills. One has only to follow a fence and 
he will reach a ranch or a road. The Haumann family still 
live on their ranch near Thedford. Retta has grown to 
womanhood and has a little daughter of her own. She lives 
at Broken Bow and often visits the old home. You may be 
sure they do not forget their lost sister, Tillie, nor do the 
early settlers fail to recall with deep feeling the days when 
they followed a fading trail while far ahead of them toiled 
the figure of a brave little girl carrying her younger sister in 
her arms to ease her weariness as they struggled on in search 
of home. 



« 



LOST IN THE SAND HILLS 191 



QUESTIONS 

1. What is the sand hills country in Nebraska good for? 

2. What to you is the saddest part of this story? 

3. Have you known of any child being lost? Tell about it. 

i. Notice how very kind all the neighbors were. What acts of kindness 

have you known neighbors to show in times of deep trouble? 
5. Tell wnat you think is fine about Tillie Haumann. 



f 



AN OPEN WELL 

IT was a long distance to water for the settlers on the table 
lands of Nebraska. If they went straight down it was 
from one hundred to three hundred feet of hard digging. If 
they went across country it was sometimes five or six miles 
to a running stream. Frequently they hauled water in 
barrels from the streams during the first year, putting in a 
sod crop to live on and digging in the well every hour they 
could spare. As they could not afford machinery these 
early wells were dug by hand. A stout rope and bucket 
with a home made crank and windlass brought the dirt up 
from the bottom. Sometimes this was turned by the 
mother and children while the father pounded away at the 
bottom with pick and spade. Sometimes the well went 
through layers of soft and sandy soil which would cave in and 
bury the digger below. To prevent this a box or curbing was 
made with boards strongly braced inside and just large 
enough to fit the well. This held the wall of the soft layers 
firmly in place. Where the wall was hard it did not need 
curbing. 

Digging a deep well was slow, painful and dangerous 
work. Months passed while the family dug and turned the 
windlass and wondered how much deeper the water lay. 
What a day of celebration when the digger struck the final 
blow and water flowed in about his feet! How glad the 
children were! All the neighbors came to taste the water 
and rejoice at the family's good luck. Water, common 
water, which people throw carelessly away seemed to them 
as precious as gold. 

When the well was very deep, pulling the water up by 
hand was too slow work, so a large wooden drum and tackle 
was built alongside the well. Horses or oxen were hitched 

192 



AN OPEN WELL 193 

to a pole fastened to the drum and driven around it in a cir- 
cle. As the drum turned it wound up a long stout rope and 
at the other end of the rope was a barrel of water coming 
slowly to the top from the cool depths of the deep well. 

During the drought of 1890 to 1895 many settlers on the 
high plains of western Nebraska left the claims where they 
had worked so hard and the wells they had toiled so hard to 
dig because they had no crops. The grass and weeds grew 
up about the wells, the frame and windlass disappeared and 
there wae a hidden open hole hundreds of feet deep. Such 
an open well in Custer County was the scene of a thrilling 
experience. The story of it was told in the Custer County 
Beacon of September 5, 1895, by the man who lived through 
it, Mr. F. W. Carlin. It is given for the most part in his own 
words : 

''While driving through the country about fifteen miles 
northwest of Broken Bow on the evening of August 14th, I 
found I had taken the wrong track and driven up to some old 
sod buildings. I turned my team around and started to- 
ward what looked like a good road, when one of my horses 
seemed to step into a place. I got out of my wagon and 
started alongside the team to be sure that the road was all 
right when, without a moment's notice, I became aware of 
the fact that I had stepped into an old well and was going 
down like a shot out of a gun. 

''I placed my feet close together, stretched my arms 
straight over my head and said, '' O God, have mercy on me," 
and I honestly believe that saved my Hf e ; but I went down, 
down, and it seemed to me I would never reach the bottom. 
The farther I went, the faster I went, and never seemed to 
touch the sides at all. 

''I supposed, of course, it would kill me when I struck the 
bottom, but God had heard my prayer. I struck in the mud 
and water, which completely covered me over. I was con- 
siderably stunned, but was able to straighten up and get my 
head above water. I scrambled around and finally pulled 



194 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

my legs from the mud at the bottom and stood on my feet 
in the water, which came just up to my arms. I was very 
cold and I tried a number of times to get out of the water, 
only to fall back. The curbing was somewhat slimy. I 
finally managed to break off a little piece of board and found 
a crack in which I managed to fasten it and perched myself 
upon it until morning. 

''While sitting there I heard my team running away. In 
its remaining by the well was my only hope of rescue, for I 
was aware of the fact that I was at least a mile and a half 
from the nearest house and that no one knew that I was 
there. 

''There I sat until morning. It was about nine o'clock 
when I fell in and I was drenched and plastered with mud. 
The only serious injury I received was a badly sprained ankle 
which gave me great pain. I also had a sore place in my 
back, which I found a number of days afterwards was a 
broken rib. 

"As soon as daylight appeared I began to look around 
and take in the situation. In looking up it seemed to be at 
least one hundred feet to the top. I learned afterwards 
that it was exactly 143 feet. It was curbed in places with 
a curb about three feet square. There would be a place 
curbed for about six to sixteen feet and then there would be 
a place not curbed at all. The curbing was perfectly tight, 
not a crack between the boards that I could get my fingers 
into, and covered with a slimy mud. I at once concluded 
that my only chance for rescue was my knife, if it had not 
fallen out of my pocket while floundering in the mud. So, 
thrusting my hand into my pocket, — there it was and a good 
one, too. I took it and began cutting footholes in the sides 
of the curbing. It was very slow, but sure. I never went 
back a foot after I had gained it. When I would get to the 
top of a curbing I took the board that I had cut out and made 
me a seat in one corner and in this way I think I got up about 
fifty feet the first day. 



AN OPEN WELL 195 

''Some time in the afternoon I came to a curbing which I 
thought I could not get through. It was of soUd one by six 
inch boards, closely fitted together and not less than sixteen 
feet to the top of it. I made myself a good seat, fixing my- 
self as comfortable as possible, and concluded that I must 
stay there and await assistance or die there. I stayed there 
all the next night and slept half of the time, for the night did 
not seem very long. I would have been quite comfortable 
had I not been so wet and cold and my feet pained me 
terribly. The greatest drawback was that I had to do most 
of my climbing on one foot. 

''I remained at that point the greater part of the next 
forenoon, calling often for help. One thing was in my favor. 
I was neither hungry nor thirsty. I began to give up all 
hopes. I thought of my wife and little boy, who were al- 
ways so glad to see me when I came home from a trip. I 
thought how the little fellow would never see his papa or run 
to meet him when he returned home again. 

''That was too much. I made up my mind to get out or 
die in the attempt. So I took a piece of board, put some 
sand on it, and got the point of my knife good and sharp on 
the sand. Then I began cutting away the curbing and mak- 
ing one foothole after another. I cut, climbing higher and 
higher, and was at last on the top of the curbing. From 
there I would have been comfortable if my feet had not hurt 
me so badly. But I cut holes in the clay for my hands and 
feet with my knife, and finally got within sixteen feet of the 
top. 

"Right there I had the worst obstacle I had met yet. It 
was a round curbing four feet high, perfectly smooth inside. 
The earth was washed out around it until the curb was only 
held from dropping by a little peg on one side. I knew if I 
tried to go up through it, it was pretty sure to break loose 
and go to the bottom with me. So my only chance was to go 
between the curb and the wall. This I was fortunate in 
doing. By going to work and digging away the wall in half 



m 



196 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



an hour I had a hole large enough to let me pass through. 
After that it was but a short job to reach the top, which I 
did, and lay for some time exhausted. 

^^Then I knelt down and thanked Almighty God for spar- 
ing my life, as I prayed for him to do, time and again during 
the two days and nights that I had been in the well. 

''But my troubles were not yet at an end. I was a mile 




A Typical Frontier Well and House. {From photograph collection of 

A.E.Sheldon.) 

and a half from a house with a foot which I could not step on. 
I cut some large weeds and made out to hobble and crawl to 
the road about forty rods distant, and there I lay until near- 
ly sundown looking for a team that never came. At last I 
gave up looking for anyone and started to crawl on my hands 
and knees to the house, but I soon gave out and had to lie 
out another night. 

''In the morning I felt somewhat better. Starting out 
again I finally arrived at the home of Charles Francis just at 



AN OPEN WELL 197 

daylight. I was given food and drink, after being without 
them two days and three nights. 

''My team was found the next day after I fell in the well. 
The man who found them took them to a justice of the peace, 
filed an estray notice, and turned them into his pasture. He 
thus comphed with the law and by so doing took away the 
last chance for me to be found." 

The story of this escape from an open well was told in the 
Nebraska legislature of 1897 by Senator Beal, of Custer 
County. The result was that an act was passed compelling 
land-owners to fill such wells on their property to the top with 
dirt or the county would do it at their expense. This law 
has remained on our statute books ever since. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Have you ever seen a well dug? Tell about it. 

2. How much water is underground and why is it harder to get in some 

places than in others? 

3. What do you think helped IVIr. Carlin most in getting out of the well? 



FORT Mcpherson military cemetery 

HUNDREDS of soldiers and pioneers died on the Ne- 
braska frontier. Some were killed by Indians, some 
were drowned, some were frozen to death in great storms, 
some died of disease. Some of these were buried where they 
died. Many were buried in the cemeteries belonging to the 
United States forts. 

One such cemetery, Fort McPherson Military Cemetery, 
was chosen by the United States for the final resting place of 
the bodies of the brave men and women from all the plains 
and the mountains. It is in Lincoln County, Nebraska, on 
the south side of the Platte, about six miles from Maxwell on 
the Union Pacific Railroad. There are six acres in the ceme- 
tery, enclosed by a brick wall. Within are tall, beautiful 
Cottonwood trees. Beneath the shade of the trees are long 
rows of graves, each grave with a white stone at the head. 
Some are large -handsome monuments with the story of the 
dead cut upon them. Others are only small white slabs 
bearing the one word ''Unknown." There are 361 of these 
unknown graves. 

Within the wall is a house belonging to the cemetery in 
which lives the officer in charge with his family. Every- 
thing about the place shows loving care and attention. 
From a tall flagstaff a large United States flag floats from sun- 
rise to sunset above the graves. Birds nest and rear their 
young in the trees. All is quiet and restful as befits the 
place. 

The officer keeps a book wherein are recorded names of 
the dead so far as they are known, where they died and 
where they were first buried. Their bodies have been 
brought here from eighteen different graveyards near the old 
forts which have been abandoned since the frontier days are 

198 



FORT Mcpherson military cemetery 199 

gone. From the plains of Colorado to the mountains of 
far-off Idaho, and even from the Philippines, the buried 
heroes of the frontier have been tenderly brought and laid 
away in Nebraska soil. One walks for hours and reads the 
stories written upon the headstones. Here are the bodies of 
the soldiers killed with Lieutenant Grattan on August 18, 
1854, in the beginning of the war with the Sioux. Here are 
the graves of women and little children who died on the 
frontier. Here are the dead of Fort Kearny and Fort 
Laramie. Here lies Spotted Horse, a brave Pawnee scout. 
Here rest the heroes of the Sioux and Cheyenne wars. From 
all the well-known forts the dead are here — as shown by the 
record books. 

From Fort Hall, Idaho 11 

From Fort Bridger, Wyoming 23 

From Fort Fetterman, Wyoming 30 

From Fort Laramie, Wyoming 133 

From Fort Crawford, Colorado 25 

From Fort Halleck, Wyoming 28 

From Fort Lewis, Colorado 41 

From Fort Kearny, Nebraska 198 

From Fort Saunders, Wyoming 51 

From Fort Sidney, Nebraska 4 

From Fort Steele, Wyoming 49 

From Fort Hartsuff, Nebraska 3 

From Fort McPherson, Nebraska 125 

From Fort Independence Rock, Wyoming 3 

From Fort White River Camp, Colorado 2 

From Fort Gothenburg, Nebraska 1 

From Fort Farnam, Nebraska 1 

From Fort La Boiite, W3^oming 8 

From Fort Manila, Philippine Islands 1 

Total 737 

There is room now for but a few more graves. Only 
soldiers and their wives may be buried here, and the wife 
only if her husband is already interred here, and then above 
him in the same grave. It is the plan of the United States 
to gather the bodies of those who died for the nation into 
national cemeteries where their graves will be cared for so 



200 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 




Fort McPherson Military Cemetery. 

{From photogi'aph by A. E. Sheldon.) 



long as the nation lives. There are more than eighty of 
these. This is the only one in Nebraska. 

The spot chosen for this cemetery is rich in memories of 
the early days. The Oregon Trail runs within a few yards 

of the wall, the deep 
lines made by its wagon 
wheels still plain in the 
unbroken sod. Here 
was the place where the 
wagon trains were most 
often attacked, since 
here the trail runs close 
to the bluffs where the 
Indians could hide. 
Fort McPherson itself 
stood near the bluff and 
about a mile southeast of the cemetery. It was built in 
1863 and abandoned in 1891. 

Many visitors come each year and linger among these 
monuments which recall the border days. The frontier is 
gone, the old forts are pulled down, the soldiers have marched 
away, the overland trails are grown over with grass or 
turned under by the plow. But the memories of the early 
years will always abide here. Gathered from all the forts 
and battlefields of the frontier West the bodies of these brave 
men and women here sleep their last sleep in quiet repose in 
Nebraska soil. At the entrance are these words : 

On Fame's eternal camping ground, 

Their silent tents are spreads- 
While Glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Find Fort McPherson on the map. How far is it from where you live? 

2. What reason for bringing the frontier dead hundreds of miles to Fort 

McPherson Cemetery? 

3. What influence does such a cemetery have upon the minds of those who 

visit it or read about it? 

4. From what poem are the lines at the entrance? 



A RAILROAD FIREMAN'S JUMP 

ON September 29, 1907, the three older children o'f the 
Dixon family, living about one mile from Seward, 
started for school. Baby Gladys Dixon, who w^as only 
nineteen months old, went with them a Httle distance. 
Away the children ran, and Gladys was soon left behind. 
Still she followed on until she came to the Burlington Rail- 
road track. 

It was nearly time for a train to pass, but Gladys did not 
know that. She stood close to the rails and waved her 
hands as the great black engine came in sight. The engineer 
tried to stop the train. Fireman Lux looked out and saw the 
child upon the track. He ran out on the foot-board and 
reached the pilot just as the engine was close upon the little 
one. There was no time to lose. He sprang from the pilot 
and while in the air, caught Gladys in his arms, and they 
rolled together down the high embankment. What followed 
is told by Mrs. Dixon: ''As soon as the children started for 
school, I began to do the morning 's work in the house. Just 
as I was washing the dishes, I heard the train and the engine 
gave a strange scream. I thought of Gladys, and my heart 
gave a big jump. I started out, and just as I reached the 
door, the train stopped and Mr. Lux was bringing the baby 
up to the house." 

The railroad people gave Mr. Lux a gold watch for his 
bravery. The parents of Gladys gave him a handsome 
diamond charm to wear with the watch, and little Gladys 
received a ring with a blue sapphire from the man who saved 
her life. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What other story similar to this have you heard? 

2. Was it a part of the fireman's duty to do what he did? Why? 

3. When ought one to risk his own hfe trying to save another? 

201 



NEBRASKA'S GREAT SEAL 

THE great seal of a state is an iron or steel instrument 
which stamps an imprint upon important papers and 
documents. The imprint is itself often called the great seal 
of the state, for it is the sign of the state's power and authori- 
ty. 

The first great seal of Nebraska was made when Nebraska 
was a territory. Its picture is shown on page 203. Its im- 
print is found only on the old documents. 

When Nebraska became a state in 1867 the legislature 
passed an act providing for the making of a new great seal. 
The act prescribed the design for the new great seal as fol- 
lows: 

The eastern part of the circle to be represented by a steamboat as- 
cending the Missouri River; the mechanic arts to be represented by a 
smith with a hammer and anvil; in the foreground, agriculture to be 
represented by a settler's cabin, sheaves of wheat, and stalks of growing 
corn; in the background a train of cars heading towards the Rocky 
Mountains, and on the extreme west, the Rocky Mountains to be plainly 
in view; around the top of this circle, to be in capital letters, the motto, 
"Equality Before the Law," and the circle to be surrounded ^vith the 
words, "Great Seal of the State of Nebraska, March 1, 1867." 

The great seal was made as ordered and is now kept by 
the Secretary of State in the Capitol at Lincoln. The pic- 
ture of the imprint given here is the exact size of the great 
seal. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Compare these two seals and tell which one you prefer and why? 

2. Why does a State have a seal? 

3. In Vv'hich direction are you looking in the picture of the State Seal. 

4. What river between you and the Rocky Mountains? 



202 




Nebraska Territorial Seal 




Nebraska State Seal. {From photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 

203 



NEBRASKA'S FLOWER 



FOR many years Nebraska had no official state flower. 
The people were too busy making homes to give the 
selection of a state flower much thought and too thankful for 
every flower which grew on the prairies and along the streams 
to choose from among the anemones and violets, the roses, 

the amorphas or shoestrings, 
the spiderworts, the puccoons 
or Indian paint brushes, the 
goldenrods and sunflowers, one 
flower which should be pre- 
ferred before all the others. 

As the years went on the 
feehng grew that Nebraska 
should have a state flower and 
the people set about choosing 
one. It was agreed that the 
flower chosen should be in it- 
self a fit emblem of Nebraska 
and that it should be found 
growing abundantly in all parts 
of the state. So they looked 
over the prairies, the plains, 
the woods, the valleys and the 
sandhills. Everywhere they 
found the bright, graceful, 
cheery goldenrod, beautiful not 
only in the tender green leaf 
and bud of springtime, in the golden glory of summer and 
autumn, but also in its quaker colored garb in our winter 
landscapes. And they said, ''The goldenrod shall be Ne- 
braska's flower." This choice was made in 1895, when the 

204 




The Golden Rod, Nebraska's 
Flower 



NEBRASKA'S FLOWER 205 

Nebraska legislature passed an act making the goldenrod 
the official flower of our state. 

There is never a time when the goldenrod cannot be found 
in our landscape. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Have you found the goldenrod in Nebraska in spring? In summer? 

In autumn? In winter? 

2. Why is it especially well fitted to be Nebraska's flower? 



ARBOR DAY 

NEBRASKA has given many good ideas to the world, but 
none better than the idea of Ai'bor Day. The early 
settlers of Nebraska looked out from the little fringe of woods 
along the streams upon a treeless prairie. Natural prairie 
groves like those of Iowa and Illinois were lacking. The 
far-sighted fathers of this state studied and thought much 
upon this question. All the early speeches and the early 
newspapers are filled with the thought that the prairie must 
be plowed and trees must be planted and made to grow be- 
fore the people would have homes where they would like to 
live and bring up their children. Out of these plans and 
thinking came the idea of Arbor Day. The first record of 
this idea is so interesting and important that it is here given 
in full: 

Lincoln, Xebr., January 4, 1872, 
83^0'clock A. M. 
State Board of Agriculture met. 

J. Sterling Morton offered the following resolution, which was unan- 
imously adopted: 

Resolved, That, Wednesday, the 10th day of April, 1872, be and the 
same is hereby especially set apart and consecrated for tree planting in the 
State of Nebraska, and the State Board of Agriculture hereby name it 
"Arbor Day," and to urge upon the people of the State, the vital impor- 
tance of tree planting, hereby offer a special premium of one hundred dol- 
lars to the county agricultural society of that count}^ in Nebraska, w^hich 
shall upon that day, plant properly, the largest number of trees; and a 
farm library of twent^^-five dollars' worth of books to that person who, on 
that day, shall plant properly, in Nebraska the greatest number of trees. 

Upon this first Arbor Day millions of trees were planted 
in Nebraska. Nature had kindly provided the young trees 
by sowing the seed of the Nebraska trees, especially the 
Cottonwood, soft maple, box elder, ash and elm upon the 
sandbars and along the edges of the belt of timber which 

206 



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''tkA ■"<'■• 



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First Arbor Day Proclamation. {Photo from Original in Stalehouse. 



207 



208 STORIES OF NEBRASKA 

bordered the rivers. In the morning a multitude of the 
early settlers left their work and gathered thousands of 
young trees to plant in groves along the fire guards about 
their claims. The young Cottonwood was the most plentiful 
and easily obtained. Every strip of sandbar along the 
streams was a dense nursery for this tree whose seeds had 
drifted there upon the high water and had been covered with 
a thin layer of mud and sand. One could gather them as 
fast as he could pull them up and tie them into bundles. 
This is one reason why the older groves of trees upon Ne- 
braska prairies were mostly cottonwood. 

The early fathers of Nebraska were not content with the 
great Access of the first Arbor Day. They saw in the future 
long lines of immigrants coming here to make their homes. 
Before there could be homes with gardens and orchards there 
must be windbreaks. To secure these they planned that 
every farm should have a forest and every year in Nebraska 
annals an Arbor Day. The record of that plan in the reports 
of the state board of agriculture reads thus : 

January S, 1874, 9 A. M. 

C. H. Walker offered the following resolution, which was, on motion, 
unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That, the Second Wednesday of April of each year be, and 
the same is hereby designated, dedicated, and set apart as Arbor Day, for 
the State of Nebraska, and that the Agriculturists of Nebraska, be re- 
quested to petition the Legislature to make said ''Arbor Day" a legal 
holiday; that until so made a holiday, the Governor be requested to call 
attention to said ''Arbor Day" by proclamation, and request the people 
of the State to observe it by planting Forest, Fruit, and Ornamental Trees. 

Robert W. Furnas of Brownville was governor of Ne- 
braska in this year. The first Arbor Day proclamation was 
made by him. You may see on page 207 a picture of it 
as it appears in the old records of the governor's office in 
Lincoln. After this first Arbor Day proclamation other 
governors of Nebraska made similar proclamations, and the 
planting of trees and the observance of Arbor Day went on 



ARBOR DAY 



209 



from year to year. In 1885 the Nebraska legislature fixed 
April 22d, the birthday of J. Sterling Morton, as the date for 
Arbor Day and made it a legal hoUday. 

Another inducement for the early settlers to plant trees 
was an act of the Nebraska legislature in 1869 under which 
for every acre of forest trees planted by a settler $100 worth 




J. Stehlixg Morton and Robert W. Furnas. {From photograph collec- 
tion of A. E. Sheldon.) 

of his property was exempt from taxation. Money was very 
scarce in those days. Here was a chance for the settlers to 
pay their taxes by planting trees on their own claims. As 
a result of this law nearly all the claims soon had enough 
trees growing on them to exempt the settlers from paying 
any taxes. Consequently so little money came into the state 
treasury that there was not enough to pay expenses and the 
state was compelled to borrow. The law was repealed in 
1877, but thousands of groves on the prairies of eastern 
Nebraska stand to-day as witnesses to its benefits. 

Since our first Arbor Day all the other states except three 



210 



STORIES OF NEBRASKA 



and many foreign countries have followed the good example 
of Nebraska by establishing Arbor Days. 

In 1895 the people of Nebraska were so much in love with 
the Arbor Day idea that both houses of the legislature passed 
a joint resolution, which was signed on April 4th by Governor 
Holcomb, as follows. 

Whereas, the state of Nebraska has heretofore, in a popular sense, been 
designated by names not in harmony with its history, industry, or ambi- 
tion; and 

Whereas, the state is pre-eminently a tree-planting state; and "where- 
as, numerous and honorable state organizations have b}^ resolution, 
designated Nebraska as the 'Tree Planter's State;" therefore be it re- 
solved, by the legislature of the State of Nebraska, that Nebraska shall 
hereafter in a popular sense, be known and referred to as the 'Tree Plant- 
er's State." 

Hence it is that children born in Nebraska are no longer 
called ^'bugeaters/' but ^'tree planters." 

It has well been said that all 
other holidays look backward to 
some great event in human his- 
tory. Arbor Day alone looks for- 
ward. It looks forward to a future 
when all the desert places of the 
earth shall be made glad with 
shade of trees, the songs of birds, 
the laughter of children and the 
happiness of homes surrounded by 
groves and gardens planted and 
cared for by the hand of man. 

Other lands have given to the 
world ideas, and da^^s to be kept 
in memory. Arbor Day is Ne- 
braska's gift to the world, destined through all ages and 
in all lands to grow in meaning and always to be kept by 
the planting of trees. 




BRASKA Tree. 



ARBOR DAY 211 



QUESTIONS 



1. Why did the world wait so long for the idea of Arbor Day? 

2. What have trees done for Nebraska? 

3. Why have other states and countries adopted the Nebraska idea of Arbor 

Day? 

4. Have you planted a tree? Tell about it. 



PART II 

A Short History of Nebraska 



CHAPTER I 
EARLIEST NEBRASKA 

A Land under Water. — Earliest Nebraska was a land 
under water in the bottom of a great inland sea. Great 
fishes swam in the water. Shell fish lived in the shallows 
and died and left their skeletons in the soft mud. Corals 
grew and Kly-like sea plants hfted their heads above the 
waves and died. Slowly the sea filled up. The skeletons 
of millions of dead animals and plants hardened into rock 
and became the limestone whose edges now appear on 
the sides of ravines and along the streams of eastern Ne- 
braska. The sea bottom slowly rose and land appeared, 
a land of marshes and forests in which grew great ferns and 
trees which are now found only far south. In this swampy 
land lived great lizards, some of them taller than elephants 
and much longer, with many other strange animals. After 
many thousand years there was more dry land, and trees of 
all kinds grew in Nebraska, splendid oaks, maples, beeches 
and willows among them. We find their leaves today 
pressed and printed in the red sandstone rocks. 

A Land of Camels, Tigers and Little Horses. — Then 
the sea came again and covered the land. New kinds of 
shells and fish lived in the sea and left their skeletons on 
the bottom. Again the land rose, was covered with grass 
and trees and Nebraska became the home of camels, tapirs, 

213 



214 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

monkeys, tigers and little horses, some of them no larger 
than dogs. The rhinoceros, elephant and other large 
animals lived here. The bones of all these are found 
to-day beneath our soil. 

A Land of Ice. — Then came moving fields of ice from the 
north plowing across eastern Nebraska and leaving, when 
they melted, deep beds of clay and the large pink boulders 
seen on the hillsides. Two or three times these ice fields 
covered the land. The chmate of Nebraska became so 
cold that the warm country plants and animals died. 
Other plants and animals came in. The grassy plains 
appeared. The climate became drier. The rivers began 
to cut out their present valleys. Nebraska as we know it 
to-day came into being. 



The First Nebraska People. — A long time before the 
white men came, men and women and children lived in 
Nebraska. They lived in earth houses built upon the 
rounded tops of the hills not more than half a mile from the 
springs and streams where there was water. They lived 
upon the tops of the hills because they were afraid to live 
in the valleys for there were enemies all about seeking to 
kill and to rob them. From the hill tops they could see the 
enemies before they arrived. 

How They Lived. — These men and women had a very 
hard life, although their home was in a land that was beauti- 
ful and rich. Their life was hard because they had to make 
out of trees, bone or stone all the tools they used. Arrows 
and spears to kill game, knives to cut it into meat, axes 
to chop trees and hammers to drive stakes and to fight their 
enemies, — all these tools and many more were made from 
stone. They made also out of bone curious little needles, 
gimlets and pinchers with which to sew their clothing and 
to aid them in doing their other work. It took a great deal 
of time to make these tools, so the men and women who 



EARLIEST NEBRASKA 



215 




dwelt in Nebraska in these prehistoric days were kept 

busy from one year's end to the other trying to get a Uving 

of the very simplest kind. They lived so much in fear of 

enemies that every family made 

a hiding place for its food and tools 

in the earth floor of its house. These 

hiding places were holes shaped like 

a bottle and were six or eight feet 

long, with a narrow neck coming 

up to the dirt floor. They covered 

this narrow neck with sticks and 

with clay and sometimes built fires 

on top of it so that strangers would 

never suspect that it was there. 

Their Graves. — These people 
buried their dead in mounds. They 
sometimes covered the bodies with 
piles of rock, placing alongside the 
bodies stone axes, arrows, spears and 
many other useful things which the 
living would gladly have kept but 
w^hich they laid in the grave because 
they believed the spirit of the dead 
would some day need these things and be able to use them. 

How We Know about Them. — All that we know of these 
early people we have learned from their graves and from 
the floors and fireplaces of their houses, deeply covered 
now with several feet of Nebraska soil, and from the curious 
bottle-shaped holes beneath their houses in which they 
hid their food and tools. Yet from these we know what they 
ate, what kinds of animals they killed, how they sewed their 
clothing together and how they cut down large trees and 
used them for posts in building their houses. We also know 
some things which they believed about a spirit world and 
about the life beyond the grave. 

They made pottery, moulding the clay, when they 



Ancient Nebraska Tools. 

(Courtesy R. F. Gilder, 

Omaha, Nebraska.) 

a, b, c, d, fish hooks; f, buckle; 
g, h, j, needles; i, shuttle; k, bone 
implement. 



216 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



found some that was plastic and strong, into cups, jugs, 
pitchers and wide-mouthed vessels which they could use 
in cooking their food. There were several kinds of pottery 
made by these people, some yellow, some red, some black, 
some with pounded clam shells mixed with the clay to make 
it tough and strong, some with sand and pounded rocks for 
the same purpose. 

Their Homes. — Most of the homes of these people 
were in the eastern part of Nebraska along the bluffs of the 
Missouri River and on the hills near the small streams flowing 

into the Missouri. Their 
buried fireplaces have 
also been found in the 
Bad Lands of north- 
western Nebraska and 
South Dakota. They 
never lived far from 
wood and water. They 
had no horses and could 
not easily cross the 
great plains. They were 
different from any of the Indian tribes found in Nebraska 
by the first white people who came. Faces found upon 
stone and clay images in their houses resemble some of 
those found in Mexico and Central America, but we do not 
know where these earliest people of Nebraska came from or 
what became of them. 

How We Know Their Story. — Their houses have long 
since disappeared. Several feet of soil cover the sites. 
In many cases trees two or three hundred years old stand 
above them. You could hardly tell to-day that houses 
had ever been there or that the children had ever played 
upon their earth floors and gathered about the fireplaces 
in the center, eager for the evening meal and for the stories 
of hunting and long journeys made on foot which the older 
people told. But just as if your house should be destroyed 




Ancient Nebraska House. (Courtesy R. 
F. Gilder, Omaha, Nebraska.) 



EARLIEST NEBRASKA 217 

and the toys and tools within it should be buried beneath 
several feet of soil for hundreds of years, until some future 
man, digging with a spade, should find these things, which 
you now use in your daily life, and from them know how 
you lived and what you thought; so to-day from these 
relics and from these gifts laid away in the mound-covered 
graves upon the hills, we know the story of these earUest 
people in Nebraska. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How do we know that earliest Nebraska was under water, later the home 

of camels, monkeys and elephants, later covered with ice? 

2. What difference, if any, in the house sites of the prehistoric people and 

of the first white settlers? Why? 

3. What became of the little horses no larger than dogs which lived in Ne- 

braska in early ages? 

4. What was the belief of the prehistoric Nebraska people regarding another 

life and how do w^e know? 

5. How much land did a prehistoric family need to get its living? Why? 

6. How far from a stream or lake could these people live? AVhy? 

7. What schools had the children of these people and what did they study? 
S. Is there anything in your locahty which tells about earliest Nebraska 

and, if so, what does it tell? 



CHAPTER II 



NEBRASKA UNDER THREE FLAGS 

The First White Men. The Spanish. — Columbus sailed 
from Spain across the ocean and found a new world. After 
him came the men and ships of many nations to claim 

part of the new world. First, the 
Spaniards came to Florida in 1513, 
and then to Mexico in 1520. All 
the vast country north they called 
Florida, so that Nebraska was a 
part of Florida upon their maps. 
In 1541, the Spaniards, under Cor- 
onado, crossed the plains from New 
Mexico to the Kansas-Nebraska 
country. In the same year Span- 
iards under De Soto crossed the 
Mississippi River into Arkansas 
and marched northwest nearly 
to Kansas. These Spaniards did 
not remain, but afterwards Spain 
claimed all the country because Spaniards were the first 
white men to find it. 

The French. — The French came to this region more 
than a hundred years after the Spaniards. From Quebec, 
where they first settled in 1608, their missionaries and fur 
traders pushed west and southwest to Lake Superior and 
Lake Michigan. Here they first heard of a great river to 
the west. Father Marquette, one of these missionary ex- 
plorers, wrote a letter from his Mission on Lake Su- 
perior in 1670, in which he says: ^'Six or seven days 
below the Illinois Indians is another river on which 
are some great nations who use wooden canoes. Of these 

218 




Spanish, French and Eng 
LiSH Flags. (Drawing bi 
Miss Martha Turner.) 



NEBRASKA UNDER THREE FLAGS 219 

we cannot speak until next year, if God bestows the grace 
upon us to lead us there." 

Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, his companion, 
paddled in a birch bark canoe from Lake Michigan up the 
Fox River, carried their canoe two miles across the land to 
the Wisconsin River, floated down the Wisconsin and on 
June 17, 1673, first saw the Mississippi River near Prairie 
du Chien in Wisconsin. They paddled their canoe down 
the Mississippi for many days. The country was all new 
and strange. In one place they saw a great monster painted 
upon the rocks. The next day they came to the mouth of 
the Missouri river and this is what they say: 

The Pekitanoui or Missouri River.— ''As we were gently 
sailing down the still clear water, we heard a noise of a 
rapid into which we were about to fall. I have seen nothing 
more frightful. A mass of large trees entire with branches, 
a real floating island came from Pekitanoui, so impetuous 
that we could not, without great danger, expose ourselves 
to pass across. The agitation was so great that the water 
was all muddy, and could not get clear. The Pekitanoui 
is a considerable river coming from the northwest, which 
empties into the Mississippi. Many towns are located on 
this river and I hope by it to make the discovery of the 
Vermillion or California Sea." 

The river they called the Pekitanoui we now call the 
Missouri. 

The First Maps. — From the Indians who lived at the 
mouth of the Missouri they first heard of the Indians who 
lived in Nebraska and learned their names. Thus the 
first maps of the Mississippi River made by the French have 
upon them the names of the Indian tribes living up the 
Missouri or Pekitanoui River — the Panis (Pawnees), 
Octotatoes (Otoes) and Mahas (Omahas). 

In 1699 French sea ships under commanders named Bien- 
ville and dTberville found the mouth of the Mississippi River, 
and began a settlement where afterward was built the city 



220 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

of New Orleans. Under these discoveries and those made by 
LaSalle in 1682 France claimed all the land whose waters ran 
into the Mississippi River. This claim was based on a law 
of nations which gave all the country, drained by any river, 
to the nation first settling upon it. French fur traders came 
up the Missouri and talked and traded with the Indian tribes. 
On their return to the mouth of the Mississippi some of them 
told such stories as these about the Nebraska country: 

Country Finest in the World. — ''Among the Canadians 
who have arrived, are two who went for two years on the 
Missouri from village to village. They report that they 
were near the mines of the Spaniards. They stopped at 
a village of savages to whom the Spaniards only come to 
trade for buffalo hides, of which they make harnesses for 
their mules. They report that the Spaniards are at w^ar 
with three or four large nations, which obliges them to go 
with breastplates and helmets as a protection against 
arrows. This they do in order that the savages may take 
them for spirits. These men said that this country is the 
finest in the world and that on the Missouri live nations 
who have horses." 

Horses and Wild Cattle. — ^''In ascending the Missouri 
River, there is found an abundance of oxen and cows beyond 
imagination. These beasts have hair and wool according 
to the season. This river is fine and grand. It is believed 
that great discoveries can be made there. Those who have 
ascended the Missouri say that it is the real source of the 
Mississippi. The country they have seen along this stream 
surpasses in beauty and riches that of the rest of the colony. 
It is situated in a pleasant climate which produces every- 
thing in the greatest abundance without cultivation. The 
air is salubrious, the seasons are regular and well tempered. 
The land is covered with all kinds of wood. The immense 
prairies are abounding in wild cattle, and all other kinds of 
wild animals. Salt is in abundance although far from the 



NEBRASKA UNDER THREE FLAGS 221 

Thus it came that France and Spain each claimed 
Nebraska. Spain claimed it because Spaniards first dis- 
covered Florida and they considered Nebraska a part of 
Florida. Besides this Coronado had visited the Nebraska 
region one hundred and fifty years before any other white 
man. France claimed it because she had first settled at the 
mouth of the Mississippi River and the waters of the Ne- 
braska region flowed into the Mississippi. Further than this 
French fur traders were trading and living with the Nebras- 
ka Indians, while the Spaniards had visited the country 
once and left it. 

France, Spain and Nebraska Indians. — France and Spain 
each tried to get the good will of the Nebraska Indians. 
The nearest Spanish settlements were in the Rio Grande 
valley in what is now New Mexico, while the nearest 
French settlements were along the Mississippi in Illinois 
and Missouri. It was far easier for the French to come up 
the river in boats to Nebraska than it was for the Spanish 
to reach it by the long journey across the plains. There 
were wars between the Indians in the Nebraska and Kansas 
country, with the French helping one side and the Spanish 
the other. To aid in one of these wars, Spain sent an 
expedition which is called the Spanish Caravan. 

The English Claim to Nebraska. — England also claimed 
the Nebraska country. The King of England gave grants 
of land to the first English settlers along the Atlantic coast. 
Each grant was a number of miles wide to the north and to 
the south and stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
''South Sea," as the Pacific Ocean was then called. The 
Nebraska region was thus thrown within the boundaries 
of the grants given to Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
But the settlers in these early Enghsh colonies were kept so 
busy making homes and fighting Indians on the Atlantic 
coast that they did not cross the Allegheny Mountains 
and never saw the Mississippi and Missouri rivers nor the 
beautiful prairies of Nebraska which the King of England 



222 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



had given to them. But, although they never saw them, 
they and their King still claimed them. 

Thus in those far away early years each of three great 
nations, Spain, France and England, strove to bring Ne- 
braska under its flag. The Indian people who lived in 
Nebraska hunted the buffalo, planted corn and knew very 
little about all this. They had never seen the English. 




Map Showing Grants by the English King and their Relation to 
Nebraska. {Drawing by Miss Martha Turner.) 

They did not care for the Spaniards. They knew and 
liked the French. Then came the great war between the 
French and English colonies in America. It is known as 
the French and Indian war, and control of the Mississippi 
river together with land whose waters flowed into it, was 
fought for in it. In this war Washington, then a young 
man, fought with the English against the French. The 
struggle lasted seven years. France was defeated and in 
1763 gave up all the land she had claimed; that east of the 
Mississippi to England; that west of the Mississippi, 
including the Nebraska region, to Spain. 

Nebraska a Spanish Province. — Nebraska thus became 
Spanish. There was a Spanish governor at New Orleans 



NEBRASKA UNDER THREE FLAGS 



223 



and another at St. Louis. The Spanish flag now floated 
over this whole region. But the people who came up the 
Missouri River to Nebraska were still French, although they 
had a Spanish governor. They spoke the French language, 
they gave French names to towns and rivers, they married 
Indian women and their children, half French and half 
Indian, grew up to become leaders in the Nebraska tribes. 

Napoleon Sells Nebraska to the United States. — While 
Spain was ruhng over the Nebraska country, the people of 
France rose against their king and nobles in the great 
revolution of 1789. Napoleon Bonaparte soon became 
the leader of that revolution and later became emperor of 
France. He planned to regain the new world colonies 
which France had lost, and bought back from Spain all the 
land, including the Nebraska country, that France once 
had held west of the Mississippi River. Napoleon began 
to make a great French province here, in which thousands 
of emigrants from France were to find homes. But war 
was coming on between France and England. England 
had the strongest navy in the world. Napoleon knew that 
the English ships would sail to the mouth of the Mississippi 
and that the French colonists could not resist them. In 
order to save Louisiana from sur- 
render to England, he resolved to 
sell it at once to the United States. 
This was done in 1803 and is 
known in our history as '^The 
Louisiana Purchase." 

Our Flag. — Three flags of three 
great nations, Spain, France and 
England, sought to wave over 
the beautiful prairies of Nebraska. 
None of them prevailed. In their 
stead the Stars and Stripes became our emblem. Under 
its folds Nebraska has become one of the United States of 
America. Instead of dark-haired Spaniards from Mexico, 




American Flag 



224 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

or quick-eyed emigrants from sunny France, Americans 
settled Nebraska. To her prairies have since come settlers 
from all parts of Europe, speaking many tongues when they 
came, but all in good time becoming Americans and Ne- 
braskans with one common language and one common hope, 
the hope of making their state 'Hhe best and most beauti- 
ful land in all the world," as the early French and early 
Spaniards reported it to be. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Which country had the better right to Nebraska, Spain or France? Why? 

2. Was what the early French fur traders said of this region true? 

3. What right had the King of England to Nebraska? 

4. Did the Indians need an European flag over this country? Why? 

5. What French or Spanish names do you find on the map of Nebraska? 

6. Why is our flag the Stars and Stripes? 




A'^t •o^:jtifp 



CHAPTER III 



NEBRASKA INDIANS AS THE ^^TIITE MEN FOUND 

THEM 

The first white men who came to this region found 
several tribes and nations of Indians Uving here and claim- 
ing Nebraska as their home. 

The Otoe. — In the southeast lived the Otoe tribe, hunt- 
ing as far east as the Mississippi River and claiming Nebraska 
as far west as the Blue rivers. 

The Omaha. — On both sides of the Missouri River from 
the mouth of the Platte as far north as Little Bow River, 

in Cedar County, lived 
the Omaha tribe. They 
claimed Nebraska 
westward as far as the 
Elkhorn River and 
Shell Creek. Their 
great chief Blackbird 
was the first Indian of 
this region whose name 
is known to white 
men. 

The Ponca. — Near 
the mouth of the Nio- 
brara River Uved the 




Map Showing Country Known to the 
^Omaha (Shaded Area) 



Ponca tribe, claiming the country westward along that 
river and the streams flowing into it. These three tribes, 
Otoe, Omaha and Ponca were closely related and spoke 
languages much alike. Their traditions tell that they 
came from the southeast up the Missouri and had been in 
this region only a few hundred years. All three belonged 
to the great Sioux family of Indians and were relatives of 

226 



NEBRASKA INDIANS 



227 



the Sioux nation living northwest of them. The Otoe 
and Omaha tribes numbered about 3,000 each and the 
Ponca between 1,000 and 2,000. 

The Pawnee. — ^Just west of the country claimed by 
the Otoe and Omaha tribes lived the Pawnee nation. Its 
principal villages were in the valleys of the Platte, Loup 




The Buffalo Hunt. (From Thwaites's ''Early Western Travels.'' Arthur 
H. Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio.) 

and Republican rivers. It numbered in the early years 
about 10,000 people and spoke a language entirely different 
from that of any other Nebraska tribe. 

The Sioux. — The Sioux nation roamed the whole coun- 
try north and west of the regions claimed by the Otoe, 
Omaha, Ponca and Pawnee tribes. In what is now Nebraska 
it numbered from 10,000 to 20,000 people. It had no per- 
manent villages, but followed the buffalo herds. About the 
time the first white men came, the Sioux were driving the 
Crows westward into the Rocky Mountains. 



228 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



The Cheyenne and Arapahoe. — Cheyenne and Arapa- 
hoe tribes, numbering about 3,000 persons, claimed the 
upper valleys of the North and South Plattes and hunted 
the western plains in common with the Sioux. They 
belonged to the great Algonquin family which lived in 
Canada and New England, and which had been the first 
Indians met by the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth 
Rock in 1620. The Algonquin language is entirely different 
from either the Pawnee or the Siouan language. How 
this Httle company of Cheyennes and Arapahoes came to 
be so far away from their relatives is not known. Probably 
they followed the buffalo westward from their older home. 
Indian Beliefs, Art and Music. — These Indians beheved 
in good and bad spirits which brought good and bad luck. 
They thought that certain charms and certain words drove 
away the bad spirits and brought the good spirits. They 
believed also in a Great Spirit, not always very clear to 
their minds, who gave the Indians the earth, the rain, the 
buffalo, and other good things. Their art was chiefly of 
two kinds, music and painting. For music they had drums, 

made of hollow logs cov- 
ered with skins, rattles 
made of gourds or 
bladders filled w4th peb- 
bles, and whistles or 
flutes made from wood 
or bone. Their songs 
and dances were a large 
part of their religion. 
For painting they had 
colored clay and soft 
rock and pencils made 
of bone. Their paintings were made upon skins or upon 
their own bodies. 

Indian Languages and Homes. — Thus seven different 
tribes of Indians, Otoe, Omaha, Ponca, Pawnee, Sioux, 




Omaha Mission Building in Thurston 
County, Built 1856 



NEBRASKA INDIANS 229 

Cheyenne and Arapahoe, numbering about 40,000 people 
and speaking three entirely distinct languages, lived in 
what is now Nebraska, when the white men first came here. 
The Sioux, the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes dwelt in skin 
tents, or tepees, and hunted for a living. The Omahas, 
Otoes, Poncas and Pawnees built large houses, called earth 
lodges, out of sod and poles, but also used tepees. They 




An Omaha Indian Village in 1860 

raised crops during certain seasons and hunted at other 
times. 

Wars between Tribes. — All these Indians, at first, were 
friendly to the white men, especially to the French. There 
was almost constant war between the Indians who had 
houses and gardens and the wild hunting tribes farther 
west. How these wars would have ended if the white men 
had not come cannot be told, but the wild Indians were 
gaining ground at that time. 



230 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



QUESTIONS 

1. Make a map showing where the Indian tribes Uved in Nebraska when 

the white men came. 

2. How many languages were spoken in Nebraska when the white men came? 

How many now? 

3. What do you know of the rehgion of the Nebraska Indians? 

4. Did the Indians hve more by farming or by hunting? Why? 

5. Why were these Indian tribes at war with each other? 



CHAPTER IV 
MAKING AND NAMING NEBRASKA 

The Name of Nebraska. — Nebraska had no name for 
many years. To the early fur traders it was either the 
''Missouri country" or the ''Platte country," stretching 
westward to the headwaters of the Platte in the Rocky 
Mountains. It was the land of the Omaha, Otoe, Ponca, 
Pawnee and Sioux Indians, for these were the tribes along 
the Missouri and Platte rivers whom the fur traders met 
and with whom they traded. The most common way of 
describing this region a hundred years ago was as ''The 
Council Bluffs," by which name the fur traders meant the 
shores of the Missouri above the mouth of the Platte. A 
little later, when the first emigrants to Oregon and pioneers 
to the Rocky Mountains began to cross this country, it 
was "The Great Buffalo Plains," for the animal most seen 
and most sought for, by both Indians and white men, gave 
its name to the country. It was also called "The Great 
American Desert" and is so named on some of the early 
maps. 

Fifty years were needed for the making and naming of 
Nebraska. 

A Wild Region Called the Indian Country.— From 
October 1, 1804, to July 4, 1805, it was part of the territory 
of Indiana and its capital the town of Vincennes. From 
July 4, 1805, until December 7, 1812, it was part of the 
territory of Louisiana with its capital at St. Louis. It then 
became a part of the territory of Missouri until the year 
1821, when Missouri was made a state and Nebraska was 
cut off and left outside the control of any state or territorial 
government. In this wild region, under no government, a 
great deal of trouble was made by fur traders who sold 

231 



232 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

whisky to the Indians, cheated them, and killed their game. 
Quarrels and wars became frequent. To end these troubles, 
all the land west of the Missouri River then belonging to 
the United States and outside of the states of Missouri and 
Louisiana and the territory of Arkansas was, on June 30, 
1834, called ^^The Indian Country,'' and placed under 
strict laws. All white men were forbidden to hunt, trap, 
or settle in the Indian country without special permission 
from the government. It was made a crime to take liquor 
there. The Indian Superintendent at St. Louis was made 
the governor over the Indian country. 

Nebraska and Oregon. — In these early days the United 
States claimed all of the Oregon country westward across 
the Rocky Mountains from Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean. 
England claimed it, too, as did also Spain and Russia. The 
English Hudson's Bay Company, in order to get the Indian 
fur trade, had built forts in the Rocky Mountains and upon 
the Pacific coast. These English forts and fur traders 
tried to keep out American settlers. This made danger of 
war between England and the United States. The United 
States had only a very few pioneer settlers in Oregon. Be- 
tween these and the Mississippi valley lay the Rocky ]\Ioun- 
tains and the great Indian country where no white people 
lived. To protect and help the Americans who wanted 
to make Oregon their home, a plan was made at Washing- 
ton to open the Indian country west of the Missouri and to 
bring in settlers who should raise crops to feed the soldiers 
and the emigrants on their way to Oregon. To prepare 
the way. Lieutenant John C. Fremont was sent in 1842 
by the United States to explore the plains and the Rocky 
Mountains. Now, for the first time, the name '^ Nebraska" 
appears. Fremont's account speaks of the ^'Nebraska 
River." The secretary of war, William Wilkins, in his 
report of November 30, 1844, says, ''The Platte or Nebras- 
ka River being the central stream would very properly 
furnish a name to the territory. Troops and supplies from 



MAKING AND NAMING NEBRASKA 



233 



the projected Nebraska territory would be able to contend 
for Oregon with any force coming from the sea.'' ^^ Nebrath- 
ka," meaning '^flat water," was the Otoe Indian name for 
the Platte. 

The First Nebraska Bill.— The first bill to make a land 
called Nebraska was introduced in Congress on December 
17, 1844. This first Nebraska in- 
cluded the states of Kansas, 
Nebraska, South Dakota, North 
Dakota and parts of Colorado, 
Wyoming and Montana. For the 
next ten years there was a great 
struggle in Congress over the mak- 
ing of Nebraska Territory. Stephen 
A. Douglas, of Illinois, was the 
champion of the Nebraska idea. 
Many obstacles were in the way. 

Obstacles to Nebraska Terri- 
tory: Indians, Railroad Question, 
Slavery. — The Indian question was 
one. Indian tribes east of the Miss- 
issippi were being moved west in 
order to make room for the white 

people. To open Nebraska territory for white settlement 
would crowd the Indians south. The southern people did 
not wish so many Indians on their frontier. 

There was the Pacific railroad question. The South 
wished a railroad to be built to the Pacific Ocean through 
the southern country, while the North wished it to be built 
by way of the Platte valley in the Nebraska country. Both 
wished to get the Indians out of the way. The making of 
Nebraska would aid the northern project, therefore the 
South opposed it. 

There was the slavery question. In the year 1820, a 
fierce dispute had risen between the North and the South 
over whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave state 




Stephen A. Douglas 



234 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

or a free state. It was at last agreed that Missouri might 
come in as a slave state, but that the rest of the country 
west and north of Missouri should be forever free. This 
was called the '^Missouri Compromise." Under it Nebraska 
would have come in free. Now the South feared making 
more free states. That was another reason why it opposed 
the making of Nebraska. 

The Nebraska-Kansas Bill. — This first Nebraska bill 
failed to pass. In 1848, Senator Douglas introduced a 
second bill. This also failed. In 1853 a third bill was 
defeated. In 1854 a fourth Nebraska bill came up in 
Congress. It was now called the ^'Nebraska-Kansas Bill" 
and made two new territories out of the Indian country. 
It also provided that the settlers in each territory should 
say by their votes whether it should be slave or free. This 
made a fierce fight over the Nebraska-Kansas bill. The 
South said that Nebraska and Kansas belonged to the whole 
country, that all people should be allowed to go there and 
take their property with them and that the settler from the 
South had the same right to take his slaves there, that the 
settler from the North had to take his horses and cattle. 
The North said that Nebraska and Kansas had been made 
free by the Missouri Compromise, that slavery was wrong 
and that there should be no more slave territory, but that 
both South and North should keep their agreement made 
in 1820 and make the West a home for free men and women 
and not for slaves. All the country was ablaze with excite- 
ment over Nebraska and Kansas. 

The South and the North Quarrel over Nebraska. — The 
old parties — Whig and Democratic — were broken up 
over this question. The churches were broken into northern 
and southern factions. For months nothing was talked of 
but the Nebraska-Kansas bill. Feeling grew more and more 
bitter and it began to appear that there might be war be- 
tween the South and the North. Finally, after an all- 
night's contest in Congress the Douglas bill, creating the 














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235 



236 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

two new territories of Nebraska and Kansas, was passed 
and signed by President Pierce on May 30, 1854. 
Thus was Nebraska named and made into a territory. 



QUESTIONS 

1. How did the Nebraska region get its different names? 

2. Would the fur traders gain more in the long run by trading liquor to the 

Indians? Why? 

3. How many bills in Congress for making and naming Nebraska and what 

obstacles did they meet? 

4. What had Nebraska to do with bringing on the war between the South 

and the North? 

5. W^hy were the churches and political parties broken up over the Nebraska 

question? 



CHAPTER V 

NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 

Nebraska Territory Five Times as Large as Nebraska 
State. — Nebraska Territory, in 1854, was five times as 
large as the state of Nebraska is now. All the way from 
Kansas to Canada, from the top of the Rocky Mountains 
to Minnesota and Iowa was Nebraska. Very few white 



sr 




Map of Nebraska Territory, 1854. {Drawing by Miss Martha Turner.) 

people then lived in the land. Fur traders had built log 
cabins in a few places along the rivers. Every summer 
thousands of emigrants to Oregon and California traveled 
the great Oregon Trail across the territory. At Fort 
Kearny and Fort Laramie on the Oregon Trail were 



238 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



companies of soldiers. At Bellevue was a little village of 
fur traders and missionaries. All the rest of Nebraska was 
wild plains and mountains, the home of Indians, buffalo 
and beaver. 

The First Settlers. — Soon after Nebraska was named 
and made, people began to settle there. Most of the first 
settlers came from Iowa. Some came from Missouri, 
Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts. All 
they had to do was to cross the river and choose the most 
beautiful land for their homes. In March, 1854, the Omaha 
and Otoe Indians ceded to the United States their country 
along the Missouri River. No surveys had been made. 
All the land was open to the first comers. Most of those 
who came from Iowa picked out the land that suited them, 
built log cabins to hold it and went back to Iowa to make 
their living. 

The First Governor, Francis Burt. — Francis Burt, Demo- 
crat, of South Carolina was the first governor of Nebraska. 

He and the other first officers of 

^^mg^ Nebraska were appointed by Pres- 

^^^^^^^ ident Franklin Pierce and were paid 

JHf^gpj^ ^^k by the United States. He was a 

^9f «i^^ slender, handsome man who loved 

books and was not used to frontier 

life. 

The long journey from his home, 
part of it by stage and steamboat, 
brought him worn out to Nebraska 
City. Nebraska City had then one 
house and one wagon. In the 
wagon Governor Burt was driven to Bellevue, where he 
arrived October 7, 1854. He grew worse and died on 
October 18th. His body was taken back to the old home 
in South Carolina. There was great sorrow in the little 
village of Bellevue over the death of the first governor, for 
all who met him learned to love him. 




Gov. Francis Burt 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 



239 




Nebraska Ferry Across Elkhorn River, 1854 

Acting Governor Cuming. — The secretary of state, 
Thos. B. Cuming of Michigan, became acting governor. 
He was very different in mind and 
person from Governor Burt. His 
eyes were dark, his hair straight 
and black, his mind bold and 
shrewd. 

Old Bellevue. — Bellevue was 
the oldest town in Nebraska, for 
Fort Atkinson had been abandoned. 
It was in fact the only town. Here 
was the old fur trading post. Here 
the Indian agent having charge of 
the Nebraska Indians lived. Here 

the first Christian missionaries came and built the only 
mission house then in Nebraska. It was expected that 
Bellevue would be the capital of Nebraska. 




Thomas B. Cuming 



240 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




First Territorial Capital, 1855 



New Omaha. — Eight miles above Bellevue, in the woods 
fronting the Missouri river, men from Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
had started a town which they named Omaha. There they 

built a two-story brick 
building which they of- 
fered to give for a Cap- 
itol. Acting -governor 
Cuming called the first 
legislature to meet there 
on January 16, 1855. 
Very bitter were the 
quarrels which followed 
this act. The first cen- 
sus of white settlers 
taken by order of the 
acting-governor showed 
2,732 people. It was claimed that many persons counted 
did not live in Nebraska at all, and that some came over from 
Iowa, voted and went back and did not settle in Nebraska. 
The First Legislature. — The first Nebraska legislature 
was the only part of the government elected by the settlers. 
It had a council of thirteen members and a house of repre- 
sentatives of twenty-six members. Twenty-one members 
came from the North Platte and eighteen from the South 
Platte. By the count of the first census there were nearly 
twice as many settlers in the South Platte region as in the 
North Platte. 

The Dividing Platte. — The Platte River cut the scattered 
settlements of early Nebraska sharply into two parts. The 
people were too poor to build bridges, the river was too wide 
and shallow for ferries and its sandy bottom was too soft 
to make good fords. The fight between the North and 
South sections began at the first session of the legislature 
and continued through the years. 

Iowa Law Becomes Nebraska Law. — There was much 
for the first legislature to do. First there was a contest 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 



241 



for permanent location of the capital. In this Omaha won. 
A body of laws was needed to govern the territory. The 
legislature met this need by taking a book of Iowa laws and 
enacting them for Nebraska. In this way most of the Iowa 
law was made Nebraska law. The eastern end of the 
country between the Niobrara River and Kansas was divided 
into counties by the governor and the legislature. All 
the rest of the great territory was an undivided wilderness. 
Laws were passed for making roads and ferries. Public 
roads were made sixty-six feet wide and continue to be so 
at this day. A law was passed prohibiting any one from 
selling or giving away Hquor. Whisky had made much 
trouble with the Indians in Nebraska while it was still the 
Indian country and in 1834, the United States had for- 
bidden its sale here. '^ 

Land and Claim Clubs. — The first settlers of M^^raska 
were not satisfied with the land laws. The United States 
law allowed a man to take 160 acres of land aiidv^fter 
living on it for six months to buy it by paying to the United 
States $1.25 per acre. The settlers said that the first 
pioneers should have 320 instead of 160 acres. In order to 
hold this land *' Claim 
Clubs" were organized. 
Each man in a claim 
club promised to defend 
every other member in 
holding his 320 acres. 
When the later settlers 
began to come they 
were warned that they 
would be driven off by 
force if they tried to 
settle on the land held 

by members of the claim ciubs. The first legislature passed 
a law giving each member of a claim club 320 acres. This 
was contrary to United States law and was therefore illegal. 




First Claim Cabin in Nebraska 



242 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



For several years there were quarrels and wars between the 

claim clubs and the later settlers. In the end the claim 

clubs disbanded. 

Governor Izard Arrives. — The second governor of 

Nebraska, Mark W. Izard, Democrat, of Arkansas arrived 

^_ .__._„___ , at Omaha February 20, 1855, 

and acting-governor Cuming 
became again secretary of 
state. 

The Coiincil with the Paw- 
nees. — In the spring of 1855, 
Indians stole cattle from the 
settlers on the Elkhorn River 
near Fremont. Governor Izard 
sent John M. Thayer and O. 
D. Richardson to hold a coun- 
cil with the Pawnee tribe. 
With them went Rev. Samuel 
AUis who had been missionary 
to the Pawnees for many years 
and spoke their language. A 
council was held with Petale- 
sharu, the great chief of the 
Pawnees, at his village on the 
high bluff four miles southeast 
of Fremont. The Pawnees 
said that the Poncas killed 
the cattle. They promised, 
however, to keep the peace. 
This was the first council 
held by the territory with 
Nebraska Indians. Fiftyyears 
afterward, a monument was 

placed on the site of this council and General John M. 

Thayer, standing for the second time on this bluff, made 

the speech of dedication. 




Petalesharu^Chief of the 
Pawnee Nation 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 243 

The First General — John M. Thayer. — Soon after the 
council with the Pawnees, John M. Thayer was made 
general of the Nebraska militia composed of settlers who 
were armed to protect the frontier. The militia were first 
called out in July, 1855, when Sioux Indians made a raid 
into the Elkhorn valley. The soldiers made a camp on the 
river. They saw no Indians but caught many catfish. 
This is sometimes, in jest, called the ^'Catfish War.^^ 

The Rival Cities — Omaha and Nebraska City. — Dur- 
ing the year 1855 settlers came slowly into the new territory. 
The census in October of that year found 4,494, of whom 
1,549 were in the North Platte section, 2,945 in the South 
Platte section. Nebraska City had become the largest 
town in the territory, the leader of the South Platte section 
and the chief rival of Omaha. 

The First Schools. — The first schools in this region were 
held in very early days. At Fort Atkinson there were schools 
for the children of the garrison during the period from 1820 
to 1827. The next schools were for the Indian and half- 
breed children. Such schools were taught at Bellevue by 
the first missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Merrill, in 1833 for 
the Otoes, and soon after for the Pawnees by Rev. Samuel 
Allis and Rev. John Dunbar. The Mormon schools came 
next. Thousands of Mormons wintered in log cabins and 
sod houses where Florence now is and also near 
Bellevue in 1846-47 while on their way across the plains 
to Utah. Schools for their children were held during 
the winter. 

Free schools came to Nebraska with her first govern- 
ment. The terms were short and the schoolhouses made of 
rough logs, but wherever there were children schools were 
started. Sometimes the first school was taught in a log 
cabin home by the mother, the children sitting on benches 
split out of trees. One of the acts of the first territorial 
legislature, dated March 16, 1855, was to provide free 
common schools. Each school district could vote what 



244 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

studies should be taught in the district. Teachers were 
very hard to get. The district school board examined 
those wishing to teach and the subjects in which they must 
pass examination were reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, 
grammar, geography and United States history. These 
examinations were oral. 



Mormons Setting out from Florence, Nebraska, to Cross the Plains 

The School Boards and Teachers.— Frontier school 
boards were often good hunters and trappers, having little 
knowledge of books, and many amusing stories are told of 
the examinations given by them. Sometimes the school 
board and teacher got into an argument over what was the 
right answer to a question. The law provided for a county 
superintendent, but the salary allowed was so small that 
few cared for the office and in some counties there was none. 
So these first Nebraska schools were run very much as each 
neighborhood wished. There was so little money to pay 
the teacher, that she often '^boarded round" the district, 



ii 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 



245 



a week at each house. The schoolhouses were rough, the 
books few and the term only a few weeks in the winter. 
All the children were eager to go. The grown-up boys and 
girls recited and studied in the same room with the little 
ones and made one big family in their studies, in their 
outdoor play, and at noon when they ate their lunches 
together seated about their home-made desks. 

The First Churches. — In the social life and in the forma- 
tion of the public sentiment of early Nebraska, religion had 
its part. Missionaries taught the first schools and pioneer 




First County Map of Nebraska, 1854. {Drawing by Miss Martha 

Turner.) 



preachers were among the earliest settlers in the territory. 
Nearly all of the churches in Nebraska of to-day trace their 
beginnings here to little groups of settlers inspired by a 
common faith who gathered in the cabins and sod-houses 
to hold their first meetings and sometimes in summer in 
groves for the larger assemblies. There was great warmth 
of good feeling in the pioneer churches as in other pioneer 
associations. The members were nearly equal in riches and 
in poverty and rarely did any misfortune come to one which 
was not shared by all. The pioneer preachers were a 
pecuUar class, fervent and untiring in spirit, always poor 



246 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

and always welcome in every settlement where they brought 
messages of good will and the friendly news from settlements 
at a distance. To found schools, colleges, and libraries 
was the dream of many of these early missionaries. In 
some cases the dream was realized. Many Nebraska towns 
and country neighborhoods to-day bear the impress in their 
social ideals of these early preachers and the churches and 
the schools which they founded. Bellevue, Brownville, 
Fremont and Fontanelle are examples. 

1856 was a year of promise to Nebraska settlers. Timely 
rains had fallen. The few little fields of wheat and corn 
had borne good crops. Gardens of plenty smiled by the 
side of log cabins. Elk, deer, antelope, grouse and w41d 
turkeys were everywhere. Buffalo were abundant just 
west of the settlements. The Sioux had been badly beaten 
at Ash Hollow by General Harney and desired peace. 
Fifty thousand dollars had been voted by Congress to build 
a new capitol at Omaha and fifty thousand more to make 
a good road from Omaha to Fort Kearney. The joy of 
living in a new country and faith in its bright future were 
in every heart. 

The Hard Winter; — Then came the severe winter of 
1856-57. It began with a great storm on the first of 
December and grew fiercer with each month. The ravines 
were filled with snow. Elk and deer perished. Roads were 
blocked. Hardly could the pioneers venture from their 
cabins to chop the wood which kept their families from 
freezing. This was always known among the early settlers 
as the '^ Hard Winter." 

Dreams of the Pioneers. — Most of the pioneers were 
poor in pocket but they were rich in hope. They saw how 
black and fertile was the soil, how thick and tall the grass 
in the valleys, how smooth and level lay the land ready for 
the plow. Much they thought and dreamed and foretold 
about this beautiful land in which they had come to live. 
There were dreams of the great Pacific railroad, of mills 




247 



248 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



and factories by the riversides, of farms and orchards and 
homes and schools where then waved only prairie grass. 

Money was what was needed, everybody said. They 
thought if only they had money to start things, to hire men, 
to buy goods, to let the world know how good the country 
was, people would come rushing in, the lands would be 
settled, towns be quickly built and all would easily get rich 
together. There were such splendid sites for towns and 
cities, at the ferry crossings upon the Missouri, where creeks 
and rivers came together and on the beautiful slopes where 
the woodland and prairie met. Many of these were staked 
off into town lots. Each one's dream was a little more 
certain to him than his neighbor's dream. 

Money was needed. There was very little of it in 
Nebraska for the settlers as yet raised almost nothing to 
sell. Each man grew a little patch of garden and grain, 
killed a little game and swapped the little surplus with his 
neighbors. 

How to Make Money. — When the second legislature 
met in 1856, some of the men who wished to make things 
go faster said: ''Pass a law that will let us join together 
in a company and start a bank. Let the bank issue bank 

notes. Everyone can use these 

notes for money and we will grow 

rich together." So the legislature 

jTX^y -JOWTa^iil- made such a law. Only a few 

%S^ :^ '^^^^^ ^9EP brave men, among them J. Sterling 

^~-r_ -^ '^Sr'"'|^ Morton and Dr. George L. Miller, 

tSI -^'Sfe r^ opposed it. 

^ ^J^^P^ ^ The Good Times.— Five men 

could then start a bank. They 
did not need to put in any money 
at the beginning. Each one 
promised to pay money at a certain future time. Then 
the bank opened. Thousands of dollars of bright beau- 
tiful bank notes were printed by each bank and loaned 




NEBRASKA WILDCAT CURRENCY 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 249 

to those who wished to borrow. This was the money 
which the banks promised to make. Everyone soon had 
plenty of this kind of money. Everybody was wilHng to 
buy. Town lots rose rapidly in price. Business was 
booming. Population doubled, the census of that year 
showed 10,716 people. Everyone seemed to be getting 
rich. More banks were started in order to make more 
money. Towns of only two or three log cabins had a 
bank. In one year over $400,000 of these bank notes 
were issued in Nebraska. Since the bank money was so 
plentiful and so easy to get, everyone freely bought with 
it, and those who sold things for a high price at once sought 
to buy other things. So the market was always lively. 

The Great Panic. — These good times lasted a little 
over a year. Then came the great panic of 1857. AH 
over the West banks broke and closed their doors. People 
who had beautiful, bright bank notes could buy nothing 
with them. People who thought they were rich, found 
that they had nothing. Those in debt, found that they 
could not pay their debts, for no one would take the bank 
notes. There was great distress and poverty and suffering 
for a number of years. 

The Wild Cat Days. — Then the people ceased to dream 
of getting rich in a few months and began to plow up their 
town sites, plant crops, and live in a quiet and modest way 
according to their means. The years 1856 and 1857 are 
called to this time, the ''Wild Cat Days" of Nebraska 
because the bank notes used were known as wild cat money. 

The Effort to Move the Capital to Salt Creek.— While 
the wild cat bank note fever was high, the third Nebraska 
legislature met on January 5, 1857. It is noted for two 
acts. It passed a bill to remove the capital from Omaha 
to Douglas in Lancaster county by a vote of nine to four 
in the council, and twenty-three to twelve in the house. 
Douglas was a ''paper town," somewhere near Salt Creek, 
no one knew just where, as no one lived there. As Governor 



2.30 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



Izard vetoed the bill, Douglas never started to grow and 
no one knows to this day where the capital would be if it 
had been moved from Omaha in 1857. The legislature of 
1857 also repealed the criminal code, that part of the law 
which provides for punishment of those who commit crimes. 
It was said this was done to keep a certain man, a murderer, 




Second Ti:ruitorial Capitol, Afterward Omaha High ochool. (From 
photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 

The law was restored at the next 



- The fourth 
8, 1857, 



IS 



from being punished 
session. 

The War between North and South Platte.- 
legislature which met in Omaha, December 
known as that of the '' Florence Secession." The war 
between the North Platte and South Platte sections had 
become fierce and bitter. There were twice as many 
settlers in the South Platte country as in the North. A 
majority of both houses of the legislature were from the 
South Platte. The North Platte by Governor Izard's 
veto had been able to hold the capital at Omaha. The 
South Platte was determined to take it across the river. 
A bill for that purpose was introduced. A fist fight on the 
floor followed between members from Omaha and members 
from the South Platte. The next day, January 8, 1858, a 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 251 

majority of both house and council adjourned to the town 
of Florence six niiles above Omaha. There they met and 
passed laws, while the other members met in Omaha. 
Among the acts passed at Florence was one providing for 
the removal of the capital to Neapolis. This was another 
paper town on the south bank of the Platte, near where 
Cedar Bluffs, Saunders County, is now located. 

Governor Richardson Comes to Nebraska. — Nebraska's 
third governor, William A. Richardson, Democrat, of Illi- 
nois, arrived at Omaha January 
12, 1858, in the midst of the Flor- 
ence secession. He refused to re- 
cognize the members at Florence 
or to sign the laws passed there, 
because that was not the capital. 
So both the Florence and the Oma- 
ha legislatures went home, at the 
end of forty days, with nothing 
done. Soon after this Secretary 
of State Cuming died and J. q^^ ^m. A. Richardson 
Sterling Morton, leader of the 

South Platte section, was appointed by President Buchanan 
to fill the place. 

The Early Colonies. — In these territorial days, settle- 
ment by colonies began. These were groups of people with 
some common bond, sometimes that of the same neighbor- 
hood in an older state, sometimes that of a common language 
or religion. Usually the first comers in these colonies wrote 
back for others and the colony spread, so that the county 
where they settled became known as the home of a certain 
class of people. In this way Germans settled in Hall, 
Cuming and Otoe counties in 1857, both French and Ger- 
mans in Richardson County, and an Irish colony in Dakota 
County in 1856. 

The Republican Party. — In the year 1858, party politics 
appeared in Nebraska. At first all the settlers were Demo- 




252 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

crats because they came from states where that party was 
strong. When the Nebraska-Kansas bill was passed in 
1854, the new Repubhcan party was born. But although 
the Nebraska-Kansas bill was the cause of the birth of 
the Repubhcan party there were at first no Repubhcans in 
Nebraska. The Democratic party in the North and the South 
was dividing into two camps on the subject of slavery. The 
southern camp said, ''A man has the right to take and hold 
his slaves anywhere in the Union." The northern camp 
said, '^Let the people in each state decide whether that 
state shall have slaves or not." The Repubhcan party said, 
^'No more slave territory anywhere." 

Slavery and the Political Parlies. — Most of the people 
in Nebraska were opposed to slavery. As the Democratic 
party was divided on the question there was a call to 
organize the Repubhcan party, and on January 18, 1858, 
the first meeting for that purpose was held in Omaha. 
Only a few were present. They were called ''Black Repub- 
licans" and not looked upon as quite respectable. In some 
counties they combined with Democrats and called their 
ticket ''people's ticket" to avoid using the unpopular name 
"Republican." 

' Prohibition Repealed. — The fifth session of the legis- 
lature was called by Governor Richardson to meet on 
September 21, 1858. Its most noted act was to repeal 
the prohibition law and in its stead provide a hcense for the 
sale of liquor. Repubhcans were the leaders in making 
this change. 

The First Surplus Crop and First Territorial Fair. — 1859 
was an eventful year in Nebraska history, for in that year the 
first corn was shipped to market. Through all the season, 
steamboats were carrying the golden grain from the towns 
along the Missouri River, where it had been hauled in 
wagons by the settlers. From that year there was no 
longer doubt that Nebraska was a farming country. In 
September of that year, the settlers' victory over the 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 



253 



great American desert was celebrated at Nebraska City 
by the first territorial fair. Robert W. Furnas was presi- 
dent. J. Sterling Morton, the orator of the occasion, made 
an historic speech recounting the hardships which the 
settlers had endured and foretelling Nebraska's great future. 

Gold in Nebraska. — Gold was found in Nebraska, in 
1859, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in the sands of 
the streams, at the headwaters of the South Platte. Soon 
there was a rush of thousands across the plains eager to 
dig for this gold in Nebraska sands. The new gold mines 
were in sight of Pike's Peak and the gold seekers painted 
''Pike's Peak or Bust" on the canvas covers of their wagons. 

The Steam Wagon Road. — -Nebraska City laid out a 
new short road to the gold mines, crossing the prairies along 
the Blue rivers. It was sometimes called ''The Steam Wa- 
gon Road" because a steam wagon, which soon broke down, 
was made to travel it. This new road was very popular 
and helped to develop Nebraska City and the South Platte 
very much. The new territory of Colorado was organized 
in 1861, taking away from Nebraska her gold mines at the 
foot of the mountains, but never, either then or since, has 
so much wealth been dug from the 
Rocky Mountains as has been pro- 
duced from the prairies of our state. 

Governor Black. — ^The fourth 
governor of the territory, Samuel 
W. Black, Democrat, of Pennsyl- 
vania arrived at Omaha, May 2, 
1859. The feud between the North 
and South Platte regions had now 
become so bitter, the South Platte 
people resolved that they would 
no longer live in Nebraska. 

The South Platte Tries to Secede. — They determined 
to secede and join Kansas, taking the entire South Platte 
country with them. To this end they sent delegates to 




Gov. Samuel W. Black 



254 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



Kansas and to Washington asking Congress to separate the 
South Platte region from Nebraska and to join it to Kansas. 
This attempt failed, but the quarrel between the North 
and South Platte regions went on. 

The Pawnee War of 1859. — What is known as the 
PavvTiee war occurred in 1859. For many years, a Pawnee 
village was upon the bluff above the Platte near Fremont, 
where General Thayer held the first Indian council in 1855. 
White settlers were coming in, and the Indians had agreed 
to give up their land there and move to the valley of the 
Loup. In July, they gathered their ponies, packed their 
goods upon them, and started up the valley of the Elkhorn, 
under their great chief Petalesharu. But they had a ''bad 
heart," as Indians say when they are angry. On their 
way they robbed the settlers and shot and wounded a man 
near West Point. When the news reached Omaha, Secre- 
tary Morton ordered General John M. Thayer to get 
together as many soldiers as possible, follow the Pawnees 
and punish them. About 200 men with guns and horses 
and one cannon joined General Thayer. They came from 
Omaha, Fontanelle, Fremont and Columbus. Governor 

Black overtook and 
joined the command. 
For four days they fol- 
lowed the wide trail of 
the Pawnees up the Elk- 
horn River. At daybreak 
on the morning of July 
12th they surprised the 
Pawnees in camp on a 
little creek, ten miles 
west of where Norfolk 
General Thayer, 




K. (I'rom 
iSheldon.) 



photo- 



Pawnee Council Ivo^ 
graph by A. E. 

now IS. 

at the head of his 200 soldiers, charged upon the camp at 
once. The Pawnees, men, women and children, came rush- 
ing out of their tepees in great terror. Their chief seized an 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 255 

American flag and rushed toward General Thayer caUing 
out, ''Good Indian! No shoot!" General Thayer halted 
his soldiers and after a parley agreed that the Pawnees 
should surrender six men who had attacked the settlers, 
should pay for all damage they had done, and should march 
overland with the soldiers to their future home upon the 
Loup. 

Battle Creek. — Thus the Pawnee war ended without a 
battle, but the little creek where this took place was named 
Battle Creek and is so called to this day. 

The First Attempt to Make Nebraska a State.— The 
year 1860 is noted in Nebraska annals for the first attempt 
to make the territory a state. The people voted upon the 
question with the result that there were 2,094 votes in 
favor, and 2,372 against and so statehood was postponed. 

Slavery Prohibited. — The sixth Nebraska legislature 
passed a bill to prohibit holding slaves in Nebraska. Gov- 
ernor Black vetoed the bill, claiming that there were so few 
slaves in Nebraska it was not worth while to pass such a bill 
and that the people could settle the question when Nebraska 
became a state. The legislature repassed the bill over his 
veto. 

Settlers' Hardships. The Free Homestead Bill.— The 
land question was still one of great interest in Nebraska. 
In 1859 Nebraska lands were first offered for sale by the 
United States. Settlers living on these lands had to pay 
SI. 25 per acre for their claims or see them sold to specula- 
tors. Many of the settlers were so poor that they had to 
borrow the money at 25 to 100 per cent interest or lose their 
homes. For this they blamed the government at Wash- 
ington. The West wished for a free homestead law, giving 
to each settler 160 acres of land for a home, if he would live 
on it for five years. The Republican party favored a free 
homestead law, as did also a part of the Democratic party. 
All the people of Nebraska, both Democrats and Republicans, 
were in favor of such a law because they wished to have 



256 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

more settlers come in, make homes here and help to develop 
the country. In 1860, Congress passed a homestead law, 
giving to each settler 160 acres of land, if he would live 
five years upon it and pay twenty-five cents an acre. Presi- 
dent Buchanan vetoed the act. 

The First Telegram.— On August 29, 1860, the first 
Nebraska telegraph line was completed betw^een St. Joseph, 
Missouri, and Brownville, and the first telegram sent was 
as follows : 

Brownville, Neb., Aug. 29, 1860. 

Nebraska sends greeting to the states. The telegraph hne was 
completed to this place to-daj^ and the first office in Nebraska formally 
opened. 

'^ Westward the star of empire takes its way." 

Citizens. 



Nebraska Changes from Democratic to Republican. — 

At the election in 1860, Nebraska became Repubhcan and 
remained so for thirty years. The veto of the homestead 
bill by President Buchanan probably did more than any 
other one thing to bring this about. Governor Black's 
veto of the anti-slavery bill also helped. A third cause was 
the split in the Democratic party between the North and 
the South. 

Nebraska Soldiers in the Civil War. — Abraham Lincoln 
was chosen President in 1860. Soon after came the seces- 
sion of the South from the Union. President Lincoln called 
for soldiers. Republicans and Democrats in the North 
answered the call. Governor Black raised a regiment of 
soldiers in Pennsylvania, was made their colonel and w^as 
killed in Virginia. The people of Nebraska were poor and 
scattered, but they raised the First Nebraska regiment of 
1,000 men which marched to the front under Colonel John 
M. Thayer and fought under General Grant at Fort Donel- 
son, Shiloh and in other battles. 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 



257 




Governor Alvin Saunders. — President Lincoln appointed 
Alvin Saunders of Omaha governor of Nebraska territory. 
He was our fifth governor, the first Republican governor, 
and held the office until 1867 when 
Nebraska became a state. 

The Free Homestead Law. — 
In 1862 Congress passed the free 
homestead law, giving every settler 
160 acres of land. President Lin- 
coln signed the act. The first 
homestead in the United States 
was taken by Daniel Freeman on 
Cub Creek in Gage county, a few 
miles from Beatrice. The home- 
stead law became one of the most 
popular laws ever enacted. Under 
it Nebraska and all the great West 
were settled by thousands of hardy 
pioneers eager to get free homes 
their children. 

The Sioux and Cheyenne Indian War.— The war at the 
South went on. More soldiers were called for and came 
from Nebraska as from other parts of the Union. Suddenly 
while the soldiers from Nebraska were absent in the South 
in August, 1864, the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, living 
on the plains of western Nebraska, raided the settlements 
along the Blue and Platte rivers, killing men, women and 
children, burning houses and driving off stock. At the same 
time the Sioux in Dakota and Minnesota were on the 
warpath and the whole frontier was in danger. The men 
of the First Nebraska regiment were recalled from the 
South and sent to Fort Kearney to protect the settlers. 
A second Nebraska regiment was enlisted under Colonel 
Robert W. Furnas and sent up the Missouri River where it 
helped to win a great victory over the Sioux at the battle 
of Whitestone Hills. 



Governor Alvin Saunders 



for themselves and 



2j8 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



Nebraska Becomes a State. — At this time the people of 
Nebraska thought much of becoming a state. The boun- 
daries of Nebraska had been changed several times since 
it was first marked out in 1854. Between 1861 and 1863 
Colorado and Idaho had been cut off on the west and 
Dakota on the north. For a time in 1863, Nebraska was 
extended west of the Rocky Mountains, but by 1864 it had 
nearly its present size and shape. In 1864 Congress passed 
an act permitting Nebraska to become a state when the 
people there were ready. The people were not read}^ until 
1866, when the question was voted upon in a very hotly 




tv*rj:« p'- 



fl».«.4mou.tK 
,Nebr4.s,WA.tila 



KANSAS 



Outline Map of Nebraska in 1863. {Drawing by Miss Martha Turner.) 

contested election and carried by a majority of about 100. 
The members of the legislature framed a constitution, which 
Congress would not accept because it permitted only white 
men to vote. Congress required the Nebraska legislature 
to meet again and declare that no one should be deprived 
of the right to vote on account of his color. When this 
was done, President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation 
making Nebraska a state on March 1, 1867. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Make a map of Nebraska Territory in 1854. 

2. Where were there white people in Nebraska in 1854 and what did they do? 

3. What effects had the Platte River on Nebraska Territory? 

4. What difference between getting land in 1854 and now? 



il 



NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY 259 

5. In what respects are Nebraska schools better than in territorial days 

and in what not so good? 

6. Why did not the "good times" of 1856 last? 

7. What was accomphshed by the "Florence Secession?" 

8. When and why was the Repubhcan party organized in Nebraska? 

9. Would it have been better if the South Platte region had been made a 

part of Kansas? Why? 

10. Why did the people of all parties in Nebraska desire a homestead law? 

1 1 . Why did the Democrats help President Lincoln to put down the rebellion? 

12. What had to be done before Nebraska became a State? 



CHAPTER VI 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 

Lincoln, the New State Capital. — The new state Nebras- 
ka had a new capital. During the long fight between the 
North and South Platte sections, the South Platte, being 
nearer to the settled states and farther from the hostile 
Indians, had outgrown the North Platte. Thus it had 

more votes in the leg- 
islature of 1866 which 
passed an act to re- 
move the capital from 
Omaha. 

The new capital 
was named for Presi- 
dent Abraham Lincoln, 
and the name was given 
by its enemies. Otoe 
county had led the 
fight for removal of 
the capital from Oma- 
ha. Its members of 
the legislature had been opposed to President Lincoln. 
The North Platte members who wished to keep the capital 
at Omaha moved to make the name Lincoln, thinking that 
the Otoe county legislators would refuse to vote for a 
capital so named. But the ruse failed; their votes were 
cast for the bill and Lincoln became the name of our 
capital, instead of Douglas as was suggested in the removal 
bill of 1857. 

Three men, Governor David Butler, Secretary Thomas 
P. Kennard and Auditor John J. Gillespie, were appointed 
to locate the new capital, which was to be at some point 

260 




First ^State Capitol at Lincoln, 1869. 
{From photograph collection of A. E. Sheldon.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



261 




DAVID BUTLER 



P. KENN-4-BD JOHN J. GILLESPIE 



The Three Founders of Lincoln. (Cour- 
tesy of Nebraska State Journal.) 



within the counties of Saunders, Butler, Seward and Lancas- 
ter. On July 29, 1867, they selected the present site be- 
tween Salt and Antelope 
creeks, which was then 
open prairie with only 
two or three log cabins. 
The Great Immigra- 
tion. — When Nebraska 
became a state, the war 
between the North and 
South was over, the hos- 
tile Indians had been de- 
feated along the frontier 
and thousands of immi- 
grants poured west in 
search of free homes. They came in all possible ways, some 
up the Missouri River in steamboats, some on the railroads* 
across Iowa, but more came in covered wagons, or '^ prairie 
schooners" as they were called, drawn by horses, mules or 
oxen. In these came the pioneers with their children; often 
with a box of chickens tied on behind, while a few cattle and 
the family dog brought up the rear. All the roads leading 

into and across Nebras- 
ka were w^hite with these 
land ships, and soon the 
valleys and prairies of 
the eastern half of the 
state \Yere dotted with 
dark spots, where they 
had anchored and the 
men and women in them 
had begun to break the 
prairies and build homes. 




First Log House in Lincoln. 

earlij painting.) 



(From 



Log Cabins, Sod Houses and Dugouts. — The houses 
of those days were very different from the houses you see 
in Nebraska to-day. The very earliest pioneers settled 



262 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



along the streams where there were trees and built log 
houses. Those who came later and settled upon the prairie 
had only one material with which to build and that was 

prairie sod. They cut 
the tough sod and piled 
it into walls, covering 
the top with poles, grass, 
sod and clay, leaving 
openings for the win- 
dows and door. There 
were more of these sod 
houses than of any other 
kind and they were 
very comfortable, being 
warm in winter and 
They were often called ''dobies." Others 




A Pioneer Dugout. {From S. D. Butcher 

colkction.) 



cool in summer. 
• made their houses by digging into a hillside, covering the top 
of the hole with poles, grass and earth, leaving a space in one 
end, usually toward the south, open for a door. These were 
called '^dug-outs." The floors were often of the bare 
ground. These early settlers worked very hard to break 
land and plant seeds, build houses and dig wells. All they 
had was the good Nebraska soil. 
Of it they made their houses and 
barns and from it they raised all 
that they had to eat and sell. Very 
kind to these pioneers was this 
good, warm, rich Nebraska soil, for 
out of it blossomed the splendid 
farms and homes and children, and 
all that makes Nebraska so fair 
and prosperous to-day. 

Governor David Butler Im- 
peached.— In 1868 David Butler 
was re-elected governor and again in 1870. He was very 
popular with the old-time pioneers whose many hard- 




GovERNOR David Butler. 

{E.G. demerits collection.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



263 



ships he himself had shared. On the other hand he made 
some enemies by his bold aggressive way of doing things. 
In 1871, the charge of using state money for his own pur- 
poses was brought against him. He was tried before the 
State Senate, impeached and removed from office and in 
his place, the Secretary of State, Wm. H. James, became 
the governor. Governor Butler turned over land to the 
State which more than paid what he owed it. His trial 
caused great bitterness at the time 
and for many years after. He still 
retained the confidence of his friends 
and years after was elected to the 
legislature by the people of Pawnee 
County, his home. 

Railroad Building and Railroad 
Aid. — There were no railroads in 
the South Platte region when the 
capital was moved there, and only 
the Union Pacific was building 
north of the Platte. In order to 
encourage railroad companies to 
build, Congress granted half the 
land on either side of the track 
for a number of miles to the company building through 
it. The other half was left for the settlers, but the home- 
steads inside of this land grant were cut down from 160 to 
80 acres. In addition the Nebraska legislature in 1869 gave 
2,000 acres of state lands for each mile of railroad. Many 
towns and counties also voted to give money to roads 
which would build to them. There was quick response to 
these liberal offers. The Burlington crossed the Missouri 
River at Plattsmouth in July, 1869. It was the first railroad 
to reach Lincoln a year later, and in 1872 it built its line to 
a junction with the Union Pacific at Kearney. The Mid- 
land Pacific was built in 1871 from Nebraska City to Lincoln 
and later built west through Seward, York and Aurora to 




Gov. William H. James. 

{E. G. Clements collection.) 



264 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




Central City. It now belongs to the Burlington. The 
St. Joseph and Denver road entered Nebraska in 1870 and 
reached Hastings in 1872. All these lines were in the South 

Platte region. In the North Platte 
the Omaha & Northwestern road 
was built to Blair, the Sioux City 
& Pacific road was built from 
Missouri Valley to Fremont and 
branches of the Union Pacific were 
begun. 

Governor Robert W. Furnas. — 
In 1872 Robert W. Furnas, Repub- 
lican, of Brownville was elected 
governor. He served two years, 
years of hard times and distress, 
and then returned to his farm and 
orchard at Brownville, there to 
become a leader in Nebraska agri- 
culture during the forty years of 
his life which followed. 

The Hard Times of 1873. — Many hardships and dis- 
couragements were met by the new-comers. There were 
prairie fires, grasshoppers, droughts and Indian raids. Then 
hard times, called the panic of 1873, came to the whole 
country. Nearly all the Nebraskans were farmers. The 
prices of everything the farmer had to sell went down very 
low, so low that it would hardly pay to haul to market. 
As railroads were very few and far between most of the 
Nebraska farmers had to haul their produce a long distance, 
some of them fifty to a hundred miles, to reach a market 
at a railroad town. Wheat sold as low as forty cents a 
bushel, corn as low as eight cents, eggs five cents a dozen, 
butter eight cents a pound, cattle and hogs two cents a pound. 
For several years the settlers burned twisted hay and corn 
for fuel. Some grew discouraged and moved back east, but 
others stayed, worked harder, saved, and kept their homes. 



Gov. Robert W. Furx. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



265 





■ 1 


r ^^ 


I 


mf^f^m 


L 'y 




.3 




■ •.V:..,;| 




M 



Gov. Silas W. Garber. 
(From Clements collection.) 



Governor Silas Garber. — In the four or five years 
following 1870, pioneers pushed out and settled the Repub- 
lican Valley region in the southwestern part of the state. 
Prominent among these pioneers was Silas Garber, Republi- 
can, of Red Cloud, who was elected governor in 1874 and 
re-elected in 1876. During his term 
the present state constitution was 
adopted and the larger part of 
the Indians removed from the 
state. 

The Removal of Sioux, Pawnee 
and Ponca Indians. — In 1876 war 
with the Sioux Indians broke out 
on the Nebraska border. The chief 
cause of this war was the rush of 
white men into the Black Hills, 
the Indian country, for gold. The 
roads most traveled to the Black Hills led from the Union 
Pacific railroad across northwestern Nebraska, crossing 
the North Platte at Camp Clark bridge. Thousands of 
people traveled these roads and had frequent fights with 
the Sioux Indians who claimed all the country north of 
the Platte. When peace was made, the Sioux ceded all 
their land in western Nebraska and removed to South 
Dakota. The Pawnee and Ponca tribes were removed to 
Oklahoma in 1875 and 1877, and thus nearly all of northern 
Nebraska was opened for settlers. 

The Grange in Nebraska. — During these hard times, 
the farmer's movement took form in Nebraska. Too many 
middlemen, too little money, too high railroad rates and 
unfair taxes were among the complaints of the farmers. 
In the granges, which were secret societies meeting in the 
country schoolhouses, they discussed the evils of the times 
and plans to remove them. Open meetings to which all 
were invited were held. There was deep and earnest debate 
on hard problems. Women also took part in these meet- 



266 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

ings and in them the foundations of future farmers' move- 
ments were laid. 

The Good Templars, Red Ribbon Clubs and Crusaders. — 
The temperance movement also became active at this time 
and spread through a secret society, the Good Templars. 
It grew rapidly for a number of years and was aided by 
Red Ribbon Clubs and by the Crusaders, bands of women 
who prayed and sang in saloons and on the sidewalk in 
order to induce people to stop drinking. There was intense 
feeling for and against both the grangers and the temperance 
agitators. The effect of the debates held by them during 
the hard times was apparent through after years. 

Irish, German, Swede, Bohemian, Russian, Danish, 
Polish and French Colonies. — From 1870 to 1880 many 
colonies of settlers came to the state. Irish colonies settled 
Holt County in 1874 and Greeley County in 1877. Germans 
settled in Platte, Dodge, Madison, Stanton and Thayer 
counties in 1867-1870. The Swedes settled in Polk and 
Saunders counties about 1870 and in Phelps and Burt 
counties about 1880. Bohemians founded colonies in Knox, 
Colfax, Saunders and Saline counties about 1870. Russian 
Germans began to settle Jefferson County about 1874 and 
^extended their settlements into Clay and Hamilton counties. 
Danish, Swedish, Bohemian and Polish colonies found 
homes in Howard and Valley counties. French settlements 
were made in Richardson, Nemaha, Antelope and other 
counties. Each of these nationalities added a new element to 
Nebraska life, making our population more varied and inter- 
esting. Each has done well its part in building a great state. 

The New Constitution. — There was a call, as the state 
grew, for a new constitution. The first one had been 
framed in haste by the legislature in 1866. A convention 
met at Lincoln in June, 1871, and made a new constitution 
in forty-seven days. In its most important parts it was 
modeled on the lUinois Constitution of 1870. When the 
people voted on the new constitution the vote stood 7,986 



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267 



268 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



for and 8,677 against. It was defeated chiefly because it 
taxed church property and gave raih*oads their right of 
way only while they used it for running trains. The 
demand for a new constitution kept growing. In 1875 
another convention met in Lincoln which framed another 
constitution very much like the one of 1871. It was adopted 
by the people in November of that year by a vote of 30,202 
to 5,704. This is our present constitution and is sometimes 
called the '' Grasshopper Constitution" because it was made 
in a year of grasshopper plague and hard times. 

The Great Prison Rebellion. — On January 11, 1875, 
the convicts in the State Penitentiary, three miles south of 
Lincoln, rose in rebellion, took the warden and inside guards 
prisoners and armed themselves with guns. Led by bold 
and desperate men, it was their plan to dress themselves 
in citizens' clothes and escape after dark. The outside 
guards gave warning. Citizens of Lincoln and a company 
of United States soldiers from Omaha surrounded the prison. 
A number of shots were fired. Mrs. Woodhurst, the war- 
den's wife, persuaded the rebels to surrender, and what is 

called ''The Great Rebellion in the 
Penitentiary" was over. 

Passing of Hard Times. — Slowly 
the years from 1873 to 1878 with 
their hard times, Indian wars, grass- 
hoppers, droughts and great prairie 
fires, passed and better days came, 
bringing better crops, better prices, 
and hope to the hearts of those who 
had endured so many hardships. 
With these better days came a host 
of immigrants to the state. 
Nance.^In 1878 Albinus Nance, 




Gov. Albinus Nance. {From 
Clements collection.) 



Governor Albinus 

Republican, of Osceola, was elected governor and re-elected 
in 1880. He was called ''the boy governor," being thirty 
years of age when chosen. During his four years in the 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 269 

office there was a revival of business, and railroad building, 
and a turning of the tide of immigration toward the North 
Platte region. 

Settlement of Western Nebraska. — By the year 1880 
the people of Nebraska, full of hope and energy, started to 
settle the western half of the state which at that time was 
nearly all wild land. The Burlington built its line up the 
Republican valley and across the plains to Denver. The 
Northwestern, then called the Fremont, Elkhorn and 
Missouri Valley, started its long extension up the Elkhorn 
River and across the sandhill region to the Black Hills. The 
Missouri Pacific came into the state from the southeast and 
before the next ten years were ended, the Rock Island 
pushed its line across Nebraska to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. All was again activity. Long lines of white cov- 
ered wagons were again on the road for the grassy valleys 
among the sand hills and the smooth plains of the great 
table-land beyond. New towns were started. The pop- 
ulation of the state more than doubled between 1880 and 
1890. 

During these years the northwest and southwest corners 
of Nebraska, and also the smooth high plains in the western 
part, were being settled. The sandhill region was the only 
part of Nebraska remaining unsettled, and even there the 
valleys at the heads of the rivers and around the sandhill 
lakes were dotted with houses. 

The Great Missouri Flood. — The year 1881 was the year 
of the great high water in the Missouri River. An ice gorge 
formed at a bend in the river in Dixon County, damming the 
waters and making a great lake which drove hundreds of 
farmers from their homes and completely flooded the town 
of Niobrara. When the flood finally passed away, the 
people of Niobrara moved their town to a new site above 
high water, three miles from its old location. There it is 
to-day. This year is known along the Missouri River as 
the vear of the ''Great Flood.'' 



270 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




Gov. James W. Dawes. 
{From Clements collection.) 



The Omaha Strike and the State Militia. — On February 
27, 1882, several hundred laborers engaged in moving dirt 
at Omaha went on a strike. Riots followed and on March 

12th, the Governor called out the 
state militia, which camped in Oma- 
ha several weeks. Their camp was 
called ''Camp Dump." In a scuffle 
between the soldiers and strikers 
one striker was killed. An extra 
session of the legislature was called 
to vote money for paying the sol- 
diers. 

Governor James W. Dawes. — 
In 1882 James W. Dawes, Repub- 
lican, of Crete, was elected gover- 
nor and re-elected in 1884. His 
term was marked by the final strug- 
gle between homesteaders and cattlemen in western Nebras- 
ka. How to handle the state school lands became a prom- 
inent question during this period and continued to be for a 
number of years. 

. The Free Land Period. — The great movement of settlers 
west was helped by the changes in the land laws. A settler 
in Nebraska in 1854 could take 160 acres and after living 
on it six months, buy it from the United States for $1.25 
an acre. This was called a pre-emption. In 1863, the 
homestead law went into effect. Under this a settler could 
take 160 acres and have it free by living upon it five years. 
In 1873 the timber claim act was passed. Under it one 
could get 160 acres by planting 10 acres of it to trees and 
taking care of them for eight years. All three of these laws 
were in force from 1873 to 1891, and under them a settler 
could in a few years get 480 acres of land. 

The Struggle between the Grangers and the Cattlemen. — 
There were conflicts between the cattlemen, whose great 
herds fed on free pasture, and the grangers, as the settlers 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



271 



were called, who came to farm. Cattlemen began to go 
into western Nebraska between 1865 and 1875. Their 
ranches were located where there was the best grass and plen- 
ty of water. These ranches were many miles apart. All 
the cattle were turned loose summer and winter and allowed 
to find feed and water where it best suited them. The 




A Western Cattle Range. (From S. D. Butcher collection.) 



cattle of different ranches ran together on the ranges. Each 
ranchman knew his own cattle because they were marked 
with his brand. Once a year, all the cattlemen in a district 
drove the cattle together and branded each calf with the 
brand of the cow which it followed. This was called the 
roundup. The grass on the plains died on its roots in the 
late summer of each year so that the frost did not kill it. 
Thus the country in the fall and winter was one great free 
haystack and a very cheap and easy place to raise cattle. 



272 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




A Frontier Nebraska Granger. 
S. D. Butcher collection.) 



(From 



When the grangers first began to settle on the cattle 
ranges of western Nebraska, the cattlemen told them that 
it was too dry there to farm, that they had been there for 

years and that the 
country dried up every 
summer and was fit only 
for cattle-ranges. The 
grangers did not believe 
them. They saw the 
beautiful, smooth prairie 
free for homesteads to 
all who would take them 
and they kept on com- 
ing in. Two things 
combined to help the 
homesteaders in their struggle for western Nebraska during 
the period between 1880 and 1890. First the hard winters of 
1880-81 and 1883-84. Deep snow fell on the cattle-ranges; 
prolonged cold weather followed. Thousands of cattle died 
and many cattlemen were ruined. Then came several years 
of abundant summer rainfall. The grangers grew splendid 
crops of all kinds on the high plains 
where the cattlemen told them no 
rain ever fell after the 4th of 
July. So the whole of western 
Nebraska was quickly settled with 
farmers. 

Governor John M. Thayer. — In 
1886 General John M. Thayer, Re- 
publican, of Grand Island, was 
chosen governor and again in 
1888. During his term the set- 
tlement of neglected parts of the 
state, especially the sandhill region, went rapidly for- 
ward. The present state capitol was completed during 
his term. 




Gov. John j\I. Thayer. 
{FrQin Clements collection.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



273 



The Great " Q " Strike.— The year 1888 is noted for the 



great BurHngton strike. 
27th, practically all the 
railroad left their en- 
gines, demanding an 
increase of pay. This 
strike lasted throughout 
the summer, causing 
great loss to the rail- 
road, to the workmen 
and to the people of the 
state. The railroad 
company brought in 
new men from the East 
to take the places of the 
strikers and finally won. 



At a given signal on February 
engineers and firemen on that 




Nebraska State Capitol in 1889. {From 
-photograph by U. G. Cornell.) 



This strike, which extended over 
all the lines of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad, 
is known as the ^' Great Q Strike." 

Horse Stealing and Vigilance Committees. — In every 
period of Nebraska's history, there has been some stealing 
of horses and cattle along the frontier, and the settlers there 
have organized to protect their stock and punisn the thieves. 
Hanging was the usual punishment for stealing stock in 
border settlements. ^'Vigilance committees" was the 
name usually given to the settlers' clubs for their own pro- 
tection. The members of such committees solemnly prom- 
ised to help each other and to punish thieves. Cattle and 
horses were stolen on a large scale after 1880 when settle- 
ments pushed into the far Northwest. The deep canyons and 
the sand hills made convenient places for hiding stock, 
until it could be run out of the country. Vigilance commit- 
tees were organized by the settlers throughout this frontier 
region. There were numerous fights between the settlers 
and the thieves. ' ' Kid Wade, ' ' a leader of the horse thieves, 
was hung to a telegraph pole at Bassett in 1884, and ^'Doc 
Middleton," another, was shot and afterwards sent to the 



274 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

penitentiary. This war between the '^rustlers," as the 
stock thieves were called, and the settlers lasted nearly 
twenty years, and ended only when the building of railroads, 
telegraph and telephone lines drove the rustlers out of the 
state. 

The Great Drought. — Then came the year of the great 
drought, 1890. No rain fell for weeks. Not only in western 
Nebraska, but over the whole state and other western 
states, this was true. Nearly all the crops were failures. 
In the older parts of Nebraska there were hard times, but 
the people had something saved from former years and 
managed to get along. In western Nebraska many of the 
people had spent all they had in getting settled on their 
farms. There was great suffering all over the West. When 
the legislature met in 1891, it appropriated $200,000 with 
which to buy food and seed for the settlers. On July 26, 
1894, a hot wind from the southwest again ruined the corn 
crop and injured other crops. The legislature of 1895 
appropriated $250,000 more to aid the settlers in the western 
part of the state. In spite of this, thousands were discour- 
aged and left their homes to find work elsewhere. 

The Panic of 1893 — Hard Times Again. — A great panic 
came in 1893 while western Nebraska was being settled, just 
as the panic of 1873 came when eastern Nebraska was being 
settled. Banks broke, factories shut down, merchants failed all 
over the country. Prices of farmers' produce again fell to the 
lowest point and, although food was so cheap, working men 
in the cities could scarcely buy enough to keep from starving, 
because they had no work. Thousands of men out of 
employment gathered in armies and marched across the 
country to Washington to demand that Congress should 
give them work. In Nebraska whole townships in the 
western part were deserted so that one could ride all day 
finding nothing but empty houses and fields growing up 
to weeds. These hard times lasted from 1890 until about 
1900. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



275 



The Farmers' Alliance.— During the years 1880 to 1890, 
a society called the Farmers' Alliance had spread over 
Nebraska and other western and southern states. Its 
objects as stated were to better the condition of farmers, 
to help them to buy and sell on better terms, to conduct 
evening schools for the instruction of members in the science 
of exchange and government and to furnish means of 
social entertainment. The chief complaint of the Farmers' 




A Farmers' Alliance Convention. {From S. D. Butcher collection.) 

Alliance was that those who handled what the farmer had 
to sell took the larger part of what he produced for them- 
selves and that those who made and sold what the farmer 
had to buy, charged him an exorbitant price. The farmers 
also claimed that there was a combine of the moneyed 
interests, including the great banks, the railroads, the manu- 
facturers, and merchants, to rob the rest of the people of 
what they produced. It was also claimed that these large 
interests conspired to control both of the great political 
parties and through them to elect men to office who were 
in favor of the capitalists. 

The Political Revolution of 1890. — In the year 1890 
the dissatisfaction of the farmers of the West and South 



276 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




took form in a great political movement which was hastened 
by the work of education and organization of the Farmers' 
AJliance and by the very general debt and distress of the 
farmers. In a single campaign the united farmers broke 
away from both of the old parties and over a large part of 

the West and the South, 
defeated their candi- 
dates for office, electing 
men of the new move- 
ment. In Nebraska, the 
campaign of 1890 will 
long be remembered. As 
there w^ere no crops to 
harvest, the farmers 
gathered by thousands 
in great open air meet- 
ings to talk over their 
grievances and to plan 
how to remove them. 
Orators of the common people addressed these meetings, 
talking to acres of eager faces amid great enthusiasm. Many 
new speakers, both men and w^omen, first found their powers 
in the excitement of this time. There were processions of 
wagons many miles long, filled with sunburned men, women 
and children with home-made banners and mottoes express- 
ing their feehngs. There were songs with home made 
words and music such as ''Goodby Old Party, Goodby," 
sung with great energy and greeted with enthusiastic 
applause. 

The Contest. Governor James E. Boyd.— When the 
votes were counted after the November, 1890, election, it 
was found that the farmers' movement had elected a ma- 
jority of both houses of the legislature in Nebraska, and the 
election of governor was so close that a contest resulted. 
When the legislature met in Lincoln in January, 1891, 
excitement ran high. After a struggle of some days, the 



Congressman O. M. Kem of Custer 
County at Home. (First Congressman 
IN United States Elected from a Sod 
House). {From S. D. Butcher collection.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



277 




Democratic candidate, Jas. E. Boyd, of Omaha, was seated. 
A bill passed both houses reducing railroad rates in Nebras- 
ka. It was vetoed by Governor Boyd. A bill was passed, 
adopting the Australian secret bal- 
lot by means of which a man might 
vote his convictions without the 
knowledge of any other person. 

The Pine Ridge Indian War. — 
The last Indian troubles on the 
Nebraska border came during the 
dry decade of hard times. The 
Sioux Indians, who once roamed 
over all western Nebraska as their 
hunting ground, had given up that 
country to the whites and were set- 
tled in South Dakota along the 
northern border of Nebraska. The 
buffalo and nearly all of the other 
game had been killed. The old- 
time Indians had nothing to do. The young men grew up in 
idleness. The United States tried to teach them farming 
and stock-raising, but only a very few were wilhng to be 
taught. The dry season of 1890 burned up the little patches 
of corn and garden which the Indians planted. They 
gathered in the shade along the little streams and listened 
to the old people's stories of the time when the Sioux lived 
a free, open life, hunting buffalo and fighting their enemies, 
and the white men were far away. An Indian came from 
the Rocky Mountains telling the Sioux that the Great 
Spirit had heard their troubles, that the white men were 
about to be driven back, and the buffalo, deer and antelope 
would return and cover the plains. 

The Ghost Dance. — The Indians began to dance the 
ghost dance, going without food for two or three days, then 
steaming themselves in little huts by pouring water upon 
hot stones, then coming out to dance in great companies. 



Governor James E. Boyd. 
{From demerits collection.) 



278 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



As they danced, they saw visions of wonderful good things 
coming to them. These ghost dances were kept up by the 
Sioux during the summer and fall of 1890. 

Battle of Wounded Knee.— On December 28, 1890, a 
party of about 400 Sioux under Chief Big Foot were halted 
on their march to Pine Ridge by the 7th cavaky. The 
next morning Colonel Forsyth started to take away their 
guns when some one fired a shot and in a moment the battle 
was on. Thirty-two soldiers and one hundred and fifty-six 
Indians were killed, many of the latter being women and 
children. This is called the battle of Wounded Knee and 
took place a short distance from the Nebraska line in South 
Dakota. The United States hurried several thousand 
soldiers to the scene and the Nebraska militia was called 
out to guard our northern border. After several other 
skirmishes during the winter, the Indians came in and 
surrendered and thus ended what is probably the last Indian 
war in the history of the United States. 

Governor Lorenzo Crounse. — Lorenzo Crounse, Repub- 
lican, of Ft. Calhoun, was elected governor in 1892, and 
dechned to be a candidate for re-election. During his 

term, many banks failed and some 
of the state money was lost in 
them. There was an impeachment 
trial of three state officers for mis- 
,^^^^^^^^^ use of state money. Over a million 

P^^^HM^^H dollars of public money from the 
^^^m^'l'^^K sale of school lands was supposed 
to be in the state treasury and 
Governor Crounse made efforts to 
have it invested where it would 
bring interest for support of the 
schools of the state. 
Governor Silas A. Holcomb. State School Money 
Stolen.— In 1894, Silas A. Holcomb, Populist, of Broken 
Bow, was elected governor and re-elected in 1896. Populist 




Gov. Lorenzo Crounse. 
(From Clements colleclion.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



279 




or People's Independent was the name given to the party 
which grew out of the farmers' movement. During his term 
the struggle over the use of the school money of the state 
went on. In the end it was found 
that over half a million dollars of 
the school money had been lost or 
stolen, some of it in broken banks, 
and some by state officers. J. S. 
Bartley, state treasurer, was tried, 
convicted and sentenced to the pen- 
itentiary for twenty years for his 
part in this loss. Mr. Bartley al- 
ways asserted that the money was 
lost or stolen by others. 

The State School Lands.— When 
Nebraska became a state, the 
United States gave to it, for public 
schools, the sections of land in every 
township numbered 16 and 36, in 
all about 3,000,000 acres. The state of Nebraska pledged 
the United States that it would never lose any of this land 
or the price of it when sold. The rent from the land and the 
interest from the money received for it was to be paid 
every year to the districts for the support of pubhc schools. 
A little over 1,000,000 acres of this land has been sold. Part 
of the money has been lost or stolen and never replaced. 
In 1897, an act of the legislature forbade further sale of this 
land. The state has now about 1,700,000 acres of school land 
which cannot be sold and which is rising in value every year. 
The rental from this land and the interest on the $10,000,000, 
which remains of the money the state has received from the 
land sold, goes every year to pay the teachers in Nebraska 
schools. No other state in the Union has larger prospects 
for the future support of its schools than has Nebraska. 

Changes in the Political Parties. Free Silver. — In these 
years there were many changes in politics. A part of the 



Gov. Silas A. Holcomb. 
{From Clements collection.) 



280 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



Democratic party tended to unite with the new People s 
Independent party, or Populists, while another part of the 
Democrats was inclined to aid the Repubhcan party in order 

to prevent the triumph of 
the new movement. In 
both the Repubhcan and 
Democratic parties there 
was a division at this time. 
The immediate cause of the 
division was the question 
whether or not the free 
coinage of silver dollars at 
the ratio of sixteen grains of 
silver to one of gold should 
be carried on by the United 
States mint. There were a 
number of other questions 
involved in the struggle, but 
free silver, as it was called, 
became the war cry in a 
nation-wide contest. In 
this conflict Nebraska was 
suddenly called to play the 
leading part. 

William J. Bryan of Nebraska Named for President. — 
In June, 1896, the Democratic national convention at 
Chicago declared for free silver and named William J. 
Bryan of Nebraska as its candidate for president. The 
Populist national convention at St. Louis in July also nom- 
inated Mr. Bryan. The Repubhcan national convention 
declared against free silver and nominated William McKin- 
ley of Ohio for president. Free silver Repubhcans left their 
party and also nominated Mr. Bryan. Gold standard 
Democrats bolted and opposed Mr. Bryan. The campaign 
of 1896 which followed was the most exciting in the United 
States for many years. It was the first time a candidate 




William Jennings Bryan in 1896 
{Courtesy of U. G. Cornell.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



281 



for president had ever been named by one of the great 
parties from a state west of the Mississippi river. In 
Nebraska, the contest was fierce and close. Never before 
were so many pohtical meetings held here and never before 
were so many of the greatest political speakers of the country 
heard in this state. At the election 
in November, Nebraska gave a ma- 
jority of about 13,000 for Mr. 
Bryan for president, and elected 
the entire Populist-Democrat state 
ticket including a majority of both 
houses of the legislature. Since 
this memorable campaign, Nebras- 
ka has had a large place and lead- 
ership in national pohtics. 

Governor William A. Poynter. — 
In 1898 Wilham A. Poynter, Popu- 
list, of Boone County, was elected 
governor. The Trans-Mississippi 
exposition was held at Omaha dur- 
ing his term. It was the first great 
exposition held in this region and it brought to Nebraska 
exhibits and visitors from all parts of the world. 

Nebraska in the Spanish War. — In 1898 the United 
States went to war with Spain, in order to make Cuba free. 
Nebraska sent three regiments to this war. The First 
Nebraska sailed to the Philippine Islands and was gone 
more than a year. Colonel Stotsenberg, its commander, 
was killed in battle. Many Nebraskans remained in the 
Philippines or have since gone there to help maintain our 
flag in those islands. The Second Nebraska regiment under 
Col. C. J. Bills, was sent to the great camp at Chattanooga, 
Tennessee, and became part of the army in reserve until 
the war ended. The Third Nebraska regiment under 
Colonel William J. Bryan, was sent to Florida and afterward 
crossed to Havana. 




Gov. William A. Poynter. 
(From Clements collection.) 



282 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




Gov. Chas. H. Dietrich. 

{From Clements collection.) 



The Republican Party Returns to Power. Governor 
Chas. H. Dietrich.— From 1896 until 1900, the Nebraska 

state elections were carried each 
year by a fusion of Populists, Dem- 
ocrats and silver Republicans. Dis- 
putes arose among these parties and 
the Republicans, making a great 
effort in the campaign of 1900, car- 
ried the state by a small major- 
ity, electing Chas. H. Dietrich of 
Hastings, as governor. Governor 
Dietrich remained in that office 
only about four months. When 
the legislature, which was elected 
with him, met in January, 1901, 
there followed a fierce and bitter 
struggle over the election of two 
United States senators. The lead- 
ing republican candidates were 
D. E. Thompson and Edward 
Rosewater. After an all winter's 
fight all the candidates withdrew 
and Governor Dietrich with J. H. 
Millard, of Omaha, were chosen 
senators. 

Governor Ezra P. Savage. — 
Lieutenant-Governor Ezra P. Sav- 
age, of Sargent, became governor 
on the resignation of Governor 
Dietrich. He held office one year 
and eight months. During his 
term he pardoned former State 
Treasurer Bart ley from the peni- 
tentiary. Feehng in the Republican 
party was so strong against him, that Governor Savage 
could not be renominated. 




Gov. Ezra P. Savage. 
(From Clements collection.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



283 



Forestry.^ Two large forest reserves in western Nebraska 
were set apart by the United States Government in 1901. 
These have since been used as experiment fields for growing 
trees, mostly evergreens. It is hoped through them to find 
the best means of covering western Nebraska with groves 
and forests. 

Farmers' Co-operative Unions. — In 1902 a new farmers^ 
movement started in Nebraska. This was a union of farm- 
ers to market their own crops. There was complaint that 
the large elevator companies made 
too great profits in handling what 
the farmers grew. As a result of 
this movement, there are now sev- 
eral hundred farmers' elevators in 
the state and a large part of the 
crop is sent to market through 
them. 

Governor John H. Mickey. — In 
1902 John H. Mickey, Republican, 
of Osceola, was elected governor 
and re-elected in 1904. His term 
saw a rising tide of prosperity, in- 
creased rainfall, higher prices, rise 
in value of land and large increase in manufactures in 
Nebraska. 

The Return of the Rain. Good Times. — A return of 
the rainfall brought fine crops and better times to the whole 
state and especially to the western part. At the same time 
there w^as a great revival of business in the United States. 
The factories and mines long closed were filled with busy 
workers. So many workmen w^ere needed, that America 
could not supply them all and more than a million a year 
came from Europe to enjoy the good times and high w^ages 
here. Farmers in Nebraska found prices for their produce 
more than doubled and at the same time they were raising 
larger crops than they had ever grown before. 




Gov. John H. Mickey. 
{From Clements collection.) 




A Nebraska Corn Crop. {From S. D Butcher collection.) 




Threshing Wintkr Wheat. (From S. D. Butcher collection.) 

2S4 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 285 

Alfalfa, Winter Wheat, Sugar Beets. — Three new crops, 
alfalfa, winter wheat and sugar beets began to be largely 
grown in Nebraska about the year 1890. All three had been 
experimented with for many years in a small way. The 
state became awake to their value at this time, and their 
cultivation spread from farm to farm and from county to 
county. Since then they have brought millions of dollars 
to the people of the state, and have greatly changed methods 
of farming. Their influence has only just begun. 

The Cream Separator. — Another great change which 
has come into Nebraska farming, in the past twenty years, 
has been brought about largely by the cream separator, by 
which the milk fresh from the cows is separated into cream 
and skimmed milk, the cream going to butter factories, 
while the milk is fed upon the farm. Dairy farming, 
which was almost unknown in the early years of Nebraska 
settlement, is thus becoming one of the chief industries of 
Nebraska farming. 

Rise in Price of Land. — During this period, land has 
risen very rapidly in price, in eastern Nebraska from $25 
and $30 an acre to $100 and $150 an acre, and in western 
Nebraska from $1.25 an acre to $10, $20 and even $50 an 
acre. Towns everywhere have grown rapidly. New rail- 
roads have been built and for the first time in Nebraska 
history, there has been a large and constant development 
of factories. 

Irrigation and Dry Farming. — Two new methods of 
farming were followed which greatly helped the state. 
These were irrigation and dry farming, or summer tillage 
as the latter is sometimes called. Under the former, ditches 
were dug to carry the water from the streams and spread it 
out upon the fields. Under this system the waters of the 
Platte, the Republican, the Loups, the Niobrara and other 
streams were led out upon the land, making great fields of 
grass and grain where before little had been raised. By 
the dry farming method it was found that plowing and 



286 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




In Line for a Homestead. {From S. D. 
Butcher collection.) 



cultivating the land without a crop one year would insure 

a fair crop the next year, even though the seasons were dry. 

The Kinkaid Homestead Act. — On June 29, 1904, a new 

homestead act took effect in Nebraska, called the Kinkaid 

act from Congressman 
Kinkaid of O'Neill who 
introduced it in Con- 
gress. This act gave 
settlers on certain parts 
of the remaining public 
land in Nebraska, a 
homestead of 640 acres 
by living on the same 
for five years and plac- 
ing improvements to the 
extent of $1,000 upon it. 
About 8,000,000 acres of sandy and rough land remained to 
be taken under this act. At many land-offices, there was a 
great rush for this last United States land in Nebraska, 
and in 1919 there were only 80,000 acres to be taken. 

Reclamation Act. — In 1906 the Reclamation Act, cham- 
pioned by President Roosevelt, made an important change 
affecting western Nebraska. Under this act, a dam was 
built across the rocky canyon of the North Platte River near 
Casper, Wyoming, making a great lake. The surplus water 
from this lake is brought down across the tablelands of 
western Nebraska. Already about 200,000 acres have been 
placed under irrigation by settlers under this act. 

Taxes and State Expenses. — For many years, the state 
of Nebraska had been running in debt to pay its expenses. 
This was because state expenses were constantly growing 
larger and the grand assessment roll was becoming smaller. 
(The grand assessment roll is the list of all the property 
in the state made by the assessors on which taxes are levied) . 
During the hard times, after the panic of 1893, the value 
of property went down. Many people, in order to avoid 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



287 




paying taxes, did not give in to the assessor all that they 
had. Many taxes were unpaid. To pay its expenses, the 
state had issued more than a mil- 
lion dollars in warrants beyond its 
income from taxes. To provide 
more money, the legislature of 19Q3 
passed a new revenue law the aim 
of which was to compel everyone 
to give in all his property for taxa- 
tion and to raise more money for 
state expenses. In 1905 the legis- 
lature passed another act, laying a 
special tax to pay off the million 
dollars of warrants which the state 
owed. This has now all been paid. 
Governor George L. Sheldon. 
Railroad Regulation. Direct Pri- Gov. Geokge L. Sheldon. 
maries. — George L. Sheldon, Re- {From Clements collection.) 

pubhcan, of Nehawka, was elected 
governor in 1906, and held the office 
two years. During his term, the 
thirty years' railroad struggle in 
Nebraska reached some definite 
results. Free passes on the rail- 
roads were abolished, passenger fare 
reduced to two cents a mile, and a 
commission of three persons created 
to regulate the relations of the peo- 
ple to the railroads in the state. 
A direct primary law was also 
passed, under which candidates for 
office must be named by all the 
voters instead of being selected by 
delegates in conventions. 
Shallenberger. Bank Guaranty. 
1908 Ashton C. Shallenberger, 




Gov. A. C. Shallenberger. 
{From Clements collect ion.) 

Governor Ashton C. 
Daylight Saloons. — In 



288 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 




Democrat, of Alma, was elected governor. During his two- 
year term, the legislature passed an act providing for a 
bank guaranty fund to insure people depositing money in 

banks from losses by bank failure. 
An act called the "Daylight Saloon 
Act," requiring liquor sellers to 
close their places from 8 p. m. to 7 
a. m., an act requiring corporations 
to pay an annual tax, an act to 
value all the railroad property in 
the state and an act providing for 
the election of the peoples' choice 
for United States Senator, were also 
passed. 

Coiinty Option. — The question 
of county option, or permitting all 
the voters of each county to deter- 
mine whether they would have 
saloons in that county or not, 
became the exciting political issue at this time. 

Governor Chester H. Aldrich. — In 1910 Chester H. 
Aldrich, Repubhcan, of David City, was elected governor. 
County option was the battleground of the campaign and the 
result was the election of a governor in favor of county 
option and a legislature opposed to it. 

Initiative and Referendum. — Among the important acts 
of the legislature of 1911 were the following: An act pro- 
viding for the initiative and referendum permitting the 
voters to adopt or reject laws; an act providing for the 
commission form of government of cities; an act to forbid 
the selling of seed of any kind ha\dng weed seeds therein; 
an act stopping the taxation of real estate mortgages; an 
act to protect the water in Nebraska rivers and lakes; and 
an act to secure libraries for the country districts. 

Governor John H. Morehead.— The Campaign of 1912. 
At the election November 5, 1912, John H. Morehead, 



Gov. Chester H. Aldrich. 
{From Clements collection.) 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



289 




Democrat, of Falls City, was chosen governor. The chief 
feature of the campaign was the spectacular split in the 
Repubhcan party between the supporters of President Taft 
and of Ex-president Roosevelt. A 
new party, named the Progressive 
party, was organized, which sup- 
ported Mr. Roosevelt. In Nebras- 
ka the Progressive party and the 
Republican party united on most 
of their candidates, but there was 
much strife and contention in 
bringing this about and Woodrow 
Wilson, Democratic candidate for 
president, carried the state by a 
plurality of 37,000 over Theodore 
Roosevelt and a still larger plu- 
rality over President Taft. The 
new legislature chosen, which met 
January 6, 1913, had 55 Demo- 
crats and 45 Republicans in the House, 18 Republicans 
and 15 Democrats in the Senate. At this election five 
important amendments were made to the state consti- 
tution, making the greatest changes in that document since 
it was framed in 1875. The new amendments provide 
for enactment of laws by the people through the initiative 
and referendum, for elections once in two years instead of 
every year, for a board of control to manage the state 
prison, asylums and other institutions, for home rule by 
cities, for increasing the salaries of members of the legisla- 
ture from $300 to $600 and limiting the time for introducing 
bills to the first twenty days of each session. 

Legislation in 1913. — ^Among the important matters en- 
acted by the legislature of 1913, were: The Mockett law, 
providing for instruction in foreign languages of children in 
grade schools ; a workman's compensation law, under which 
persons injured at their work are paid for the loss; a Blue 



Gov. John H. Morehead 



290 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

Sky law to prevent fraud in the sale of stocks, bonds, and 
land. In addition, three important commissions were pro- 
vided to investigate public questions, one to report upon 
systems of taxation, another upon Nebraska water power, 
and the third upon reform in legislative procedure and 
government. 

Election of 1914, Woman Suffrage Defeated. — At the 
election in 1914, Governor IMorehead (Democrat) received 
120,206 votes, R. B. Howell (RepubHcan) 101,229 and 
H. E. Sackett (Progressive) 8,655. Thus the election in- 
dicated the return of the Progressives to the Republican 
party. An exciting feature of this election was the vote 
upon the woman suffrage amendment to the constitution. 
This amendment was defeated by a vote of 90,738 for and 
100,842 against. 

Legislature of 1915, Reform in Government. — The 
legislature of 1915 adopted a large part of the report of 
the commission on reform in legislative procedure and gov- 
ernment, thereby saving the state many thousands of 
dollars and securing a better mode of enacting laws. Since 
then similar reforms, based upon Nebraska's experience, 
have been enacted in other states. The principal issues 
before the legislature were the creation of a better road 
system, the use of water power, public ownership of public 
utilities, such as water works, gas and electric light, tele- 
phones, and street railways. 

Changes in Farming. — Important changes in farming 
during this period include the discovery that sweet clover, 
for many years regarded as a weed, was a plant which could 
be used for pasture and hay, and in addition, like alfalfa, 
to enrich the soil. A systematic effort was made to establish 
county agricultural agents for the purpose of securing 
better agriculture and co-operation among farmers. In 
some counties there was a very strong opposition to this 
plan among the farmers, while in other counties it was 
generally supported. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



291 



The Farmers' Educational and Industrial Union, usually 
called The Farmers' Union, began organization in Nebraska 
in 1913. Its principal purpose was to unite the farmers in 
co-operative associations for buying and selhng. It has 
grown very rapidly until it numbers at present in the state 
about 50,000 members. 

The United States Supreme court rendered an im- 
portant decision for Nebraska winter wheat growers, 
permitting the use of the bleaching process in the manu- 
facture of white flour from dark red winter wheat. 

Election of 1916, Prohibition 
Wins, Democratic Ticket Elected. 
— The great issue in the election 
of 1916 was prohibition of the sale 
and manufacture of liquor. The 
prohibition amendment to the con- 
stitution carried by the vote of 
146,574 for to 117,532 against, 
after a heated campaign. The 
party contest at the same election 
turned chiefly upon the support of 
President Woodrow Wilson for re- 
election. ^'He kept us out of war" 
was the campaign slogan of the 
Democrats. The Republicans and 
Progressives united upon Charles 
E. Hughes as their candidate for 

president. Woodrow Wilson carried Nebraska by 41,000 
majority. Keith Neville, Democratic candidate for governor, 
was elected over A. L. Sutton, Republican and Progressive 
candidate, by a majority of 6,000. The Democrats elected 
their entire state ticket and a majority in both houses of 
the legislature. 

The World War. — The great war in Europe, which 
began in August, 1914, drew nearer to America and Nebraska 
as the years went by. In Nebraska, as in America, the 




Gov. Keith Neville 



292 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

prevailing public opinion was with the AlUes and against 
Germany. After the German invasion of Belgium this 
sentiment grew stronger and large sums of money were 
given in our state for the relief of the starving Belgians. 
Hundreds of French orphan children were adopted by our 
people, who sent money to support them at their homes. 
In Nebraska there were over 200,000 persons born in 
Germany or whose parents were born there. There was a 
German-American league and over forty newspapers 
printed in the German language. Many thousands of these 
Nebraskans spoke German in their homes and their children 
attended schools taught in German. A strong effort was 
made by the German government to control the sympathy 
of these people for Germany in the war and through them 
to influence the government of the United States and of 
Nebraska for Germany. On the other hand there was a 
large Bohemian and Polish population in Nebraska bitterly 
opposed to Germany because their pro\dnces in Europe 
were held in subjection by the German and Austrian 
empires. 

Relations of United States and Germany. — As the war 
went on the relations between the United States and 
Germany grew strained. Especially was this true when 
Germany, with her submarines, began to sink ships carry- 
ing Americans. When the Lusitania was sunk May 7, 1915, 
and 114 Americans were lost, there was a great wave of 
popular feeling against Germany. Some began to demand 
that the United States join the Alhes in the war. The 
Republicans fiercely criticised President Wilson for tolerat- 
ing Germany's affronts, yet neither the Republicans nor the 
Democrats put a demand for war in their party platform. 

United States Joins the Allies Against Germany. — 
After many sharp letters between the United States .and 
Germany, the latter promised to comply with the demands 
of the United States in regard to sinking merchant ships 
with submarines. On January 31, 1917, Germany notified 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 293 

our country that her promise was mthdrawn and that 
unrestricted submarine warfare would begin at once. On 
February 3, the German Ambassador at Washington was 
given his passports. Everyone knew we were very near 
entering the war. There was a dramatic scene that day in 
the Nebraska legislature when a resolution pledging Presi- 
dent Wilson the support of the state in the great crisis 
was passed unanimously by a rising vote. On March 16 
German submarines sank three American ships. On April 6 
Congress declared that a state of war existed between 
the United States and Germany. 

Nebraska in the War. — Preparations to sustain the 
government began immediately in Nebraska as in other 
states. The legislature passed an act creating a State 
Council of Defense and granting it extraordinary powers 
to make all the resources of the state available for carry- 
ing on the war. The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth regiments of 
the Nebraska National Guard were called out and went 
into United States training camps. Committees were 
formed to raise money for all the war enterprises. Thou- 
sands of young men volunteered for service in the United 
States Army and Navy. Young women entered the hos- 
pital and Red Cross service. In a few cases individuals 
and neighborhoods expressed opposition, but as the months 
went by more and more the mind of Nebraska was made 
up to see the war through and to make it, as far as human 
wisdom might do so, the end of war for all time. 

Special War Session of Legislature .7— A special war 
session of the legislature was called by Governor Neville 
to meet March 26, 1918. It enacted laws permitting the 
Nebraska soldiers to vote at their army camps; a sedition 
act to punish persons who opposed the government; a 
law to develop the potash industry; a law establishing Home 
Guards to preserve order at home. It repealed the Mockett 
law for teaching foreign languages to children in the grade 
public schools. 



294 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

War Time Events in Nebraska. — A great thrill filled 
the hearts of Nebraska people when General John J. 
Pershing was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all United 
States forces in Europe. ^General Pershing lived at Lincoln 
from 1891 to 1895 and his two sisters and only son, Warren, 
still live there. He was commandant of the military de- 
partment of the University of Nebraska in those years, 
and a graduate of our law college. A body of student 
cadets at the University still bear the name ''Pershing 
Rifles" in his honor. 

Nebraska Food Supply. — The food supply was the 
first necessity for the war. Before a soldier could march 
or fight he must be fed. Nebraska was near the center of 
the great food producing section of the United States. 
Her contribution of first importance was therefore to 
produce the largest possible supply of food and to consume 
the smallest possible amount of what could be shipped 
abroad. Corn, wheat, meat and sugar are all produced in 
Nebraska. The State Food Administration was organized 
to secure the largest possible surplus of these products. 
In order to do this the people at home were asked to eat 
substitutes for flour, meat, and sugar. Each person was 
limited to two pounds of sugar a month, or about six level 
teaspoonfuls a day; to two slices of bread at a meal; and 
as to beef, to only three meals a week. It was forbidden 
to sell hens in the pubHc markets, for hens laid eggs and 
eggs would take the place of meat shipped abroad. 

Patriotic War Work in Nebraska. — The newspapers 
of Nebraska were filled every day and every week with 
columns of patriotic appeals. The women of the state were 
enrolled l^y thousands, each giving her training and pledging 
her services to the government where she could be most 
helpful. The moving picture theaters not only showed 
patriotic films, but gave time at each performance to 
four-minute speakers who stirred the audience mth 
patriotic argument and enthusiasm. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 295 

War Prices Fixed to Protect the People. — Since there 
was so much demand for food, coal and other necessaries 
of life and since so many men were going to war who had 
produced these things, prices tended upward. To protect 
the people a schedule of retail prices was prepared and 
pubhshed by the Food and Coal administrations. All 
dealers in these articles were required to take out licenses. 
Any dealer who disregarded the price scheduled or who 
sold to one person more than the prescribed allotment, 
had his license revoked and he was permitted to subscribe 
liberally to the Red Cross, or he was even kept out of busi- 
ness for a time. 

How Money Was Raised for the War.^ An enormous 
amount of money was needed by the government to carry 
on the war. The United States was called upon, not only 
to pay her own expenses in the war, but to loan vast sums 
to the Allies w^ith which they could pay for the food and 
munitions they bought in America. Never before in the 
history of the w^orld had such great sums, amounting alto- 
gether to more than $30,000,000,000, been raised by any 
nation. In order to get this money, United States Bonds 
and War Savings Stamps were sold to the people. Each 
state, city and county was assigned its share. Committees 
were formed which secured volunteers who should see each 
person and sell a proper amount of the bonds. In this 
way everybody could purchase his share. Money was also 
raised for the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, the Young Women's Christian Association, the 
Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, the Jewish 
Welfare Board and the War Library Service. 

Nebraska's Share of the Money Raised. — Nebraska's 
share of the bond purchases was $240,000,000 and her 
people purchased more than they were assigned. In sales 
of War Savings Stamps, Nebraska not only exceeded her 
quota but took more according to her population than any 
other state in the Union. 



296 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

Nebraska Soldiers in the War. — Nebraska furnished 
47,801 men for the war. Her soldiers were scattered through- 
out the entire United States Army and Navy. Many of 
them took part in the great battles overseas. The largest 
body of Nebraska soldiers in any one command was in 
the 355th Infantry, 89th Division. This regiment, taken 
from the farms, offices, shops and stores, with only a 
few months training did brave fighting in the battles of 
the Argonne Forest and Meuse River, and lost about 
one-third of its members. Afterwards the regiment marched 
into Germany and spent the winter at Saarburg, near the 
Rhine. The list of Nebraska soldiers who died in the war 
is not yet complete, but when completed will number about 
one thousand men. Nebraska Base Hospital 49 consisted 
of four hundred men and women. It was stationed at 
Allereye, France, and cared for the wounded and sick from 
the battlefields in the Argonne. It made the best record 
for saving life of all the American hospitals in Europe. 
More than two million American soldiers were taken across 
the ocean. Two million more were in training in camps in 
America eager to cross. Although most of these men, and 
nearly all of those from Nebraska, had no previous military 
training, yet they met and defeated the veteran soldiers 
of the German army. They arrived in France just in time 
to hurl back the advancing German armies at Chateau 
Thierry, within a few miles of Paris. On November 11, 
the German government signed an armistice which ended 
the war. The German Kaiser fled from his countr}^ to 
Holland and most of the kings and princes of Europe 
were driven from their thrones by their own people. With- 
in a few weeks the American soldiers began to come 
back from the training camps in the United States and 
from overseas. Enthusiastic celebrations were held in 
Nebraska for her soldiers when they returned, took ofl 
their uniforms and began their work again as peaceful 
citizens. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 



297 



The People Who Helped at Home.— The war for 

freedom and the world's peace was won at home as much 
as on the field of battle. The soldier risked his life and de- 
serves honor for his daring. Back of him were the people 
at home, providing the food, munitions and supphes of 
all kinds, without which the war would not have been won. 
In Nebraska men, women and children of all classes worked 
in the fields to save the crops, cheerfully gave their money 
to war enterprises, denied themselves food and responded 
to all the calls to sustain the government. Out of the 
sacrifices and experiences of the war a new spirit has arisen. 
It demands better and more American education for every 
boy and girl, better homes and equahty for all who work. We 
did not go into the war to conquer land or trade, but to bring 
democracy and order and peace and justice to the whole 
world. 

Election of 1918, Governor S. R. McKelvie, Repub- 
lican Wins. — At the election in 
November, 1918, Samuel R. 
McKelvie was elected governor 
over Keith Neville by over 20,000 
majority. The Republicans elected 
the entire Republican state ticket 
and a large majority of both houses 
of the legislature. In the legisla- 
tive session of 1919 the principal 
measure presented by the new 
administration was the administra- 
tive code bill which provided that 
about twenty separate branches of 
the state government should be 
placed under six heads appointed 
by the governor. After a fierce 
contest, this bill passed both houses 
and became a law. Those opposed to the bill immediately 
invoked the referendum against it. The matter is now before 




Gov. Samuel R. McKelvie 



298 A SHORT HISTO'RY OF NEBRASKA 

the courts, but Governor McKelvie appointed the heads 
of departments and placed the system in operation. 

Other measures of importance passed by the legislature 
of 1919 are: An act which provides for the redistricting of 
all counties of the state into school districts, so that better 
schools may be provided; an act appropriating $5,000,000 
for the erection of a new capitol; an act providing for a 
public highway system partly paid for by the United 
States and for expending $6,000,000 thereon during the 
next two years; an act placing all schools (both parochial 
and public) under supervision of the state, county and 
city superintendents; an act requiring all subjects taught 
children in the first eight grades to be given in the English 
language only; an act changing the direct primary law of 
1907. The last act has been held up by a referendum peti- 
tion and will be voted on by the people at the election of 1920. 

Nebraska Ratifies Woman Suffrage. — A special session 
of the Nebraska legislature was called by Governor McKelvie 
July 27, 1919, to ratify an amendment to the United States 
constitution giving women in all the states the same voting 
rights as men. On July 31, both houses of the Nebraska 
legislature ratified this amendment unanimously. Nebraska 
was the fourteenth state to ratify. When thirty-six states 
have ratified the amendment, universal woman suffrage 
will prevail throughout the United States. 

A New Constitution for Nebraska. — The people of 
Nebraska at the election of 1918 voted to have a new 
constitution. The legislature of 1919 passed an act provid- 
ing for a convention to frame such a constitution. One 
hundred delegates to the convention were elected on Novem- 
ber 4, 1919. They met in Lincoln, December 2, 1919, to 
frame a constitution which will be submitted to the voters 
of the state at the election in November, 1920. 

The Nebraska Indians To-day. — There have been great 
changes in the Indian tribes which once called Nebraska 
their home. The Pawnees, reduced in number to 653, 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 299 

live on their reservation in Oklahoma. Next to the Pawnees 
on the west is the reserve of the Otoes and Missouris, living 
together as one tribe now numbering only 411. They have 
a beautiful rich prairie bordered with timber for their home. 
Joining the Otoe reserve on the north is the land of the 
Poncas. Here live the part of the Poncas, 583 in number, 
who did not return to Nebraska. Thus side by side in the 
heart of Oklahoma hve three tribes of Nebraska Indians. 
They visit each other and keep alive the memory of the 
land in the north where they once lived. They still think 
of Nebraska as their old home and their children grow up 
hearing, from the lips of the older men and women, many 
wonderful stories of the old times. The former Nebraska 
Sioux, who number about 12,000 people, live on their great 
reservation in South Dakota. They are often seen in the 
Nebraska towns along the border. Part of the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes who once roamed western Nebraska are 
now in Oklahoma and number about 2,000. The remainder 
are in Wyoming. 

There are at the present time 41,087 Indians in Nebraska. 
Of these the Omaha and Ponca are the only native Nebraska 
tribes. The Omaha number 1,377 and Uve in Thurston 
County. The Nebraska band of the Poncas has about 338 
members and lives at its old home near the mouth of the 
Niobrara River. The Indians now living in Nebraska who 
were moved here by the United States are as follows : The 
Winnebagos, 1,086 in number, live neighbors to the Omahas. 
Their former home was in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They 
came to Nebraska in 1865. The Santee Sioux were moved 
from Minnesota in 1863, and settled in what is now Knox 
County along the Missouri River. There are 1,193 of them. 
The Sauk and Fox Indians of Missouri were located in 
1861 on a reserve in southeast Nebraska and northeast 
Kansas. They number about 93. 

Rights of Indians. — All the Indians now living in 
Nebraska are citizens and have the same right to vote and 



300 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

to hold office that white people have. They own some of 
the very best land in the state, much of it rented to white 
farmers. Some of these Indians work hard and are learning 
the white man's way of living, while others cling to the old 
life and love to spend their time visiting each other and 
telling stories of the days before the white men came. Their 
children go to school and learn the English language, 
although the Indian languages are still spoken in their homes. 

Passing of the Old Life. — In a few years the old lan- 
guages and the old Indian ways will be gone forever and 
nothing will remain of Indian life in Nebraska but its story. 

Shipping Nebraska Grain. — In recent years, a great 
change has come in the route over which Nebraska grain 
is shipped to market. In the early years nearly all Nebraska 
products were shipped east over the railroads to Chicago 
and the Atlantic ocean. With the building of north and 
south railroads, a large part is now shipped to the southern 
states and another large part is sent to the mountain states 
over the western lines of road. 

Free Libraries. — About 1899 there began in Nebraska a 
movement to secure free public libraries and reading rooms. 
In a few of our towns and cities these had been established 
for many years. The new effort was to make at least one 
strong library in each county. This movement is still going 
on and acts of the legislature of 1911 are expected to bring 
good libraries well cared for within reach of every citizen. 

The Women's Clubs. — In the period between 1890 and 
1900 the woman's club movement in Nebraska took an 
active form. A number of clubs had been organized in 
earlier years. In 1894 these were brought together in a 
state federation, new clubs were organized and state con- 
ventions held with great interest and enthusiasm. These 
women's clubs aim to inspire and promote the interests of 
women and to bring their influence to bear for better schools, 
better books, better homes, better government and a 
happier and more beautiful state. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 301 

Retrospect. — This story of Nebraska as a state closes 
with the year 1919. It is one hundred and eight years since 
the Astorians and Manuel Lisa ran their famous boat race 
for a thousand miles up the Missouri River past our shores. 
It is fifty-eight years since the outbreak of the great civil 
war between the North and the South, starting from the 
contest between slavery and freedom in the Nebraska 
country. The stor}^ of our state extends backward and 
reaches forward and in either direction a child of Nebraska 
finds it filled with interest and inspiration. 

Nebraska a Century Ago. — Wonderful is the story 
of the world in these last one hundred years and nowhere 
more wonderful than here in Nebraska. A hundred years 
ago, our state was an unknown wilderness called a desert. 
Upon it roamed 40,000 Indians and millions of buffalo, elk 
and deer. Wild geese, swans, ducks and other waterfowl 
made their nests undisturbed. The wild grass grew every- 
where, the sod unbroken by the plow. The waters of its 
streams ran unchecked to the sea. 

The mind and hand of man have transformed Nebraska 
in the past fifty years. A milhon and a quarter of white 
people live in a land which supported only one-thirtieth 
as many Indians. Nearly 10,000,000 domestic animals 
find their food where once were herds of buffalo, elk and 
deer. 

Nebraska To-day. — If a boy should spend one day only 
of his life in visiting each Nebraska farm, he would need to 
live more than five hundred years before he had seen them 
all. Five hundred cities and villages in our own state are 
fed from these farms, and the surplus food w^hich we ship 
to the people of other states and countries every year would 
fill a million farm wagons or make a railroad train of freight 
cars long enough to reach from Chicago to Denver. 

Nebraska Herds. — Our herds of horses, cattle, sheep 
and swine, if driven as fast as a man can walk across a 
bridge over the Platte River, would make a column 10,000 



302 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 

miles long and be four months in crossing the bridge, with- 
out stopping to feed or water. 

Nebraska Crops. — Men and women are still living in 
Nebraska who have seen all these changes. They have 
seen all the counties, cities, villages and farms of Nebraska 
created. They have seen the number of bushels of wheat 
grown in this state increase from 147,000 in 1859, when we 
shipped our first surplus, to 65,000,000 in 1919, and the 
number of bushels of corn from about 1,000,000 in 1859 to 
over 223,000,000 in 1917. Nebraska to-day could give 
every man, woman and child in the United States two 
bushels of corn and one-half bushel of wheat and still have 
enough for bread and seed for the people within our state. 

The Old Way of Travel and the New.— Instead of the 
Indian squaw leading a pony over a dim trail across the 
sunbaked plains one hundred years ago, with the poles of her 
tepee dragging at the pony's side; instead of the slowly 
crawling freight wagon with its twelve yoke of oxen of fifty 
years ago; we now travel daily in Nebraska by means of a 
thousand passenger trains, thirty thousand automobiles 
and, still unsatisfied, are just learning to spread our wings 
and fly through the air faster than even automobile or 
express train can travel. 

The Telephone. — When our fathers, the pioneers, settled 
these prairies, to talk five minutes with the nearest neighbor 
meant sometimes a day's drive with the fastest team. Now 
their children and grandchildren sit in their homes and 
talk with their friends in every county of the state, and if 
they wish, with friends far away by the lakes or the shore 
of either great ocean, knowing their voices and even feel- 
ing their presence. 

Nebraska Schools. — The schools of Nebraska are famed 
around the world, for our state has had for many years the 
largest percentage of any state in the Union of its people 
able to read and write, and is thus the most intelligent 
state of the most intelligent nation in the world. 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 303 

Most of the progress in the Nebraska schools has been 
made in the past forty years. In that time the number of 
schoolhouses in the state has grown from about 300 to 7,000 
and the number of children in school from 12,000 to 300,000. 
The rough logs and sod walls of the schoolhouses forty 
years ago have nearly all been replaced by neat wooden and 
brick buildings. Instead of the split log seats of the earliest 
schoolhouses with their home-made desks there are con- 
venient desks of poHshed wood and metal. In place of 
the few school books of many different kinds bought b}^ the 
parents in many different states and brought to Nebraska, 
each child in the Nebraska schools to-day has free books 
furnished by the district in which he lives, with maps and 
charts and apparatus for making experiments never dreamed 
of by those other children who attended the Nebraska 
schools in the early days. 

Besides these great improvements in the common 
schools, our state has resolved that her people shall, in the 
future, excel even more than in the past. For their training 
in all the arts and trades of life she has added free normal 
schools for training the teachers, and a free university and 
agricultural college where a boy or girl may study and 
practice the best that may be learned for the life of a farmer 
or engineer or mechanic or any of the caUings by which men 
and women may hope to earn their living and make them- 
selves useful to the state in which they dwell. 

How Nebraska Shall be Prosperous and Free. — Nebras- 
ka is a rich, great and beautiful state. She cannot stop 
where she now is. It is the law of life that states must 
grow stronger and wiser and better, or they must decay. 
It is the people who make a state, and the children to-day 
make the people of to-morrow. Our fathers first of all made 
this state free. Then they made it prosperous. They 
made it thus with labor of muscle and of brain. They 
did the rough work, they built the bridges, dug the wells 
and broke the sod. They did not ask an easy time. If 



o04 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEBRASKA 



they had, Nebraska would never have been built. For us 
is left to do the finer work, to use the improved ways, to 
develop the better knowledge. This requires greater skill 
and finer training and persistent labor. 




Monument TO Abraham Lincoln ON State House Grounds, Lincoln, 
Nebraska, 1912. {Courtesy of Roy Hindmarsh, Lincoln^ Nebraska.) 



Hard w^ork and neighborly kindness made life happy for 
our fathers even in the sod houses and dugouts of the early 
days. As they grew strong, the state grew strong with them 
because every man earned his living. No one lived in 



NEBRASKA AS A STATE 305 

idleness upon the work of his neighbor. Their children 
will make a richer and better and greater Nebraska by 
practice of the two chief virtues which have made the 
Nebraska of to-day — honest labor and neighborly kindness. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Why was the new capital located where it now is and how did it get 

its name? 

2. Which would you prefer for a home, a dobie or a dugout, and why? 

3. Why were railroads built so rapidly in Nebraska? 

4. What were the results of the grange movement in Nebraska? 

5. Why was a new constitution made? 

6. What caused hard times and good times in Nebraska between 18"3 and 

1888? 

7. Was it better for each settler to have 160 or 480 acres under th 3 land 

laws? Why? 

8. What difference in the action of farmers and of railroad men whe.i they 

wished more pay for their work? Why? 

9. Why are fewer horses stolen now than in 1880-90? 

10. Did the Farmers' Alliance do wisely in starting a new political party? 

11. Is it better for the state to rent or sell the school lands? Why? 

12. What made Nebraska prominent in national affairs in 1854? In 1869? 

In 1896? To-day? 

13. Ought the state to pay its expenses or go in debt? Why? 

14. What is needed to enable the state to pay its expenses? 

15. What are the most important measures passed by recent legislatures? 

16. Tell briefly of Nebraska's part in the great war. 

17. Contrast the Nebraska Territory of a hundred years ago with Nebraska 

of to-day. 

18. What do you think is the most important thing to be done in order to 

make Nebraska a better state? 



GLOSSARY 



(Note: The spelling of certain names connected with Nebraska has 

varied in different periods. In some cases the spelling used in this book 
varies according to the period; e.g., Kanzas, Kanzes, Kansas.) 

Acaanibas ah-kan-nee'-bas 

Apaches ay-pach'-ees 

Arkansas ar'-kan-saw 

Bourgmont boor-mon' 

Brule broo-lay' 

Cabanne kah-ban-nay' 

Charlevoix shar-lay-vwah' 

Chaui chow-ee' 

Cibola see-bo'-lah 

Comanche ko-man'-chee 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de . . kor-oh-nah'-do vass'-keth 

De Smet day-smett' 

Escanzaque ess-kan-zak' 

Essanapes ess-san-ah'-pes 

Gnascitares nas-si-tah'-rees 

Harahey hay-ray'-hay 

Hopi ho'-pee 

Isopete ee-so'-pee-tee 

Itan — Sometimes spelled letan. This word is not found in any of 
the pronouncing dictionaries. It seems to have been pro- 
nounced it'tan or yit'tan, from which we get the name of the 
present village of Yutan. 

La Hontan la-on-ton' 

LaJoie lah-zhwa' 

LeClerc lay-cler' 

Lisa .... lee'-sa 

Mallet, Pierre mal-lay' pee-air' 

Mitain me-tan' 

Nicomi nee-ko'-mee 

Pawnee pah-nee' 

Pekatanoui pek-a-tan'-oo-ee 

Penalosa, don Diego de .... pen-ya-lo-sa dee-ay-go 

Petahauerat pee-tah-how'-erat 

Pitalesharu pee-tah-lee-shar'-roo 

Pizarro pi-zar'-ro 

Pueblo pu-eb'-lo 

Quivira ke-vee'-rah 

Sagean, Mathieu sa-zhan' mah-tee-you' 

Santa Fe sahn-ta-fay' 

Sarpy sar-pee' 

Shoshone sho-sho'-nee 

Skidi skee-dee' 

Tatarrax tah-tar-rash' 

Tirawa tee-rah-wah' 

Valee, Andri val-lay' an-dree' 

Voyageurs vwa-ya-zher' 

Zuni .... . . . . zoo'-nyee 



INDEX 



Acaanibas, 10. 

Adams County, 85. 

Aldrich, Governor Chester H., 288. 

Alfalfa, 285. 

Algonquin Indians, 228. 

Allis, Rev. Samuel, 242, 243. 

Alma, 288. 

American Fur Company, 41, 167. 

American Horse, 152. 

Antelope County, 187, 266. 

Antelope Creek, 261. 

Apache Indians, 6. 

Arapahoe Indians, 43, 117, 131, 228, 

299 
Arbor Day, 206. 
Arikara Indians, 37, 41. 
Arikaree, 51. 
Arickaree Fork, 131. 
Ash Hollow, 149, 246. 
Ashland, 7. 

Assessment Grand Roll, 286. 
Astor, John Jacob, 41. 
Astoria, 41. 

Astorians, 41, 55, 85, 301. 
Atchison, 90. 
Aunt Manuel, 38. 
Aurora, 263. 
Australian ballot, 277. 

Bad Face Band, 146. 

Bad Lands, 216. 

Bandelier, Adolf T., 12. 

Bank Guaranty, 287. 

Baptist Missionary Union, 70. 

Bartley, J. S., 279, 282. 

Bassett, 273. 

Battle Creek, 255. 

Beal, Senator C. W., 197. 

Bear, The. 98, 149. 

Beatrice, llO, 257. 

Beaver Creek, 47, 152. 

Beecher, Frederick H., 133. 

Beecher Island, 131. 

Bellefontaine Cemeterv, 40. 

Belle vue, 52, 55, 59, 65, 88, 96, 118, 

175, 238, 239, 243, 246. 
Benton, Senator, 136. 



Bienville, 219. 

Big Elk, 46, 52. 

Big Foot, 278. 

Big Horn Mountains, 41, 146. 

Big Horse, 25. 

Big Sandy Station, 139. 

Big Springs, 85. 

Bills, Colonel C. J., 281. 

Birds, Early Nebraska, 64, 65. 

Black, Governor S. W., 253, 256. 

Black Bear, 123. 

Black Hills, 41, 79, 146, 152, 171, 265. 

Black Moon, 80. 

Black Republicans, 252. 

Black Robe, 79. 

Blackbird, 18, 26, 60, 226. 

Blackbird Hill, 22, 26, 36, 59. 

Blackbird Hills, 181. 

Blackfoot Indians, 31, 42. 

Blair, 264. 

Blue Creek, 146. 

Blue Rivers, 226. 

Blue Sky Law, 289. 

Bonneville, Captain, 86. 

Boone County, 95, 281. 

Bourgmont, 13. 

Bow River, 18. 

Boyd County, 19, 169. 

Bovd, Governor James E., 276. 

Branding Cattle, 271. 

Bridgeport, 43, 120. 

Bright Eyes, 175. 

Broken Bow, 190, 193, 278. 

Brown, John, 100. 

Brownville, 111, 208, 246, 256, 264. 

Brule Sioux, 97, 146. 

Bryan, WiUiam J., 280, 281. 

Buchanan, President James, 110, 251. 

Buck, Nelson, 108. 

Buffalo Bill, 128. 

Buffalo Countv, 89. 

Buffalo, First Mention of, 3. 

Bugeaters, 210. 

Bull Bear, 147. 

Burlington Railroad, 263, 269. 

Burlington Strike, 273. 

Burt, Governor Francis, 238. 



307 



308 



INDEX 



Burt Coiintv, 159, 266. 

Butler, Governor David, 129, 180, 

260, 262. 
Butler County, 89, 104, 118, 261. 

Cabanne's Trading Post, 65. 

California Trail, 42, 88. 

Calumet Bluff, 27. 

Camp Clark Bridge, 265. 

Camp Creek, 100. 

Camp Dump, 270. 

Carlin, F. W., 193. 

Carr, General, 125. 

Casper, Wyoming, 42, 82, 286. 

Cass County, 129. 

Catfish War, 243. 

Catlin, George, 21, 56, 59. 

Catlin's North American Indian 

Gallery, 61. 
Catlinite, 60. 
Cattlemen, 270. 
Cedar Bluffs, 251. 
Cedar County, 18, 27, 104, 226. 
Census, First, 240. 
Census, Second, 243. 
Central City, 92, 264. 
Central Pacific, 138. 
Central Route, 90. 
Chadron, 126. 
Chadron Creek, 154. 
Charlevoix, 13. 
Chaui, 114. 
Cherry Countv, 187. 
Cheyenne Indians, 37, 117, 122, 131, 

145, 228, 299. 
Cheyenne War, 199. 
Cibola, Seven Cities of, 1. 
Claim Clubs, 241. 
Clay County, 85, 266. 
Code Bill, Administrative, 297. 
Cody, W. F.. 128. 
Colfax County, 89, 118, 266. 
Colonies in Nebraska, 251. 266. 
Colter, John, 31. 
Columbus, 8, 123, 254. 
Comanche Indians, 12, 117. 
Compensation Law, Workman's, 289. 
Connor, General, 123. 
Constitutional Convention, 298. 
Constitutions of Nebraska, 266, 289. 
Co-operative Farmers' Union, 283. 
Cooper Family, 160. 
Coronado, Francisco Vasquez do, 

1, 218. 



Cortez, 6. 

Council-bluff, 26. 

Council Bluff, 55. 

Council Bluffs, 231. 

Council Bluffs Indian Agencv, 55. 

Council Bluffs, Iowa, 77, 240. 

Councils with Indians, 25, 27, 36, 45, 

78, 80, 81, 148, 150, 151. 153, 156, 

170, 181, 242. 
Countv Option, 288. 
Court House Rock, 120. 
Crazy Horse, 126, 153, 155. 
Cream Separator, 285. 
Crete, 270. 

Crook, General George, 126, 154. 
Crooks, Ramsay, 41. 
Crounse, Governor Lorenzo, 278. 
Crow Dog, 155. 

Crow Indians, 37, 41, 147, 227. 
Crusaders, 266. 
Cub Creek, 110, 257. 
Culbertson, 118. 
Cummg, Thomas B., 239, 251. 
Cuming Countv, 159, 250. 
Custer, General George A., 126, 153. 
Custer County, 193. 

Dairy Farming, 285. 

Dakota Countv, 15, 26, 251. 

David City, 288. 

Dawes, Governor J. W., 270. 

Dawes Countv, 126. 

Daw.son County, 85, 89, 124. 

Daylight Saloon Act, 287. 

Democratic Party, 234, 251, 280. 

Denver Trail, 89. 

De Smet, Father Pierre Jean, 77, 87, 

152. 
De Soto, 218. 
Deuel Countv, 47. 
D'Iberville, 219. 

Dietrich, Governor Chas. H., 282. 
Direct Primaries, 287. 
Dismal River, 128. 
Dixon, Gladvs, 201. 
Dixon Countv, 269. 
Dobies, 262. 
Dobytown, 166. 
Dodge County, 89, 158, 162. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 233. 
Douglas (Lancaster County), 249, 

260. 
Douglas Bill, 235. 
Douglas County, 89. 



INDEX 



309 



Drought, Great, 274. 
Dry Farming, 285. 
Dugouts, 26i. 
Dunbar, Rev. John, 243 
Dundy, Judge, 174. 
Dundy County, 187 
Dunning, 190. 

Earliest Nebraska, 213. 

Edmunds, Doctor, 189. 

Eliza, slave, 101. 

Elkhorn River, 25, 47, 95, 226, 242, 

254, 269. 
Emery, Robert, 139. 
Ely, Rosalie (Lisa), 40. 
Escanzaque Indians, 6, 7. 
Essenapes, 9. 
Esta Maza, 175. 

Falls City, 100, 289. 

Farmers' Alliance, 275. 

Farmers' Union, 291. 

Fetterman, Colonel, 150. 

Fifth Cavalry, 125. 

Fire Fighting, 135. 

First Nebraska Book, 74. 

First Nebraska Missionaries, 70. 

First Nebraska Regiment, 256, 257. 

First Schools, 243. 

First Settlers, 238. 

First Survej^ of Nebraska, 104. 

Flood, Great of 1881, 269. 

Florence, 88, 243. 

Florence Secession, 250. 

Flowers, Early Nebraska, 65, 82. 

Floyd, Sergeant Charles, 26. 

Fontanelle, 246, 254. 

Fontenelle, Henry, 56. 

Fontenelle, Logan, 94. 

Fontenelle, Lucien, 94. 

Fool-Robes-Son, 47. 

Forestry, 283. 

Forsyth, Colonel George A., 131, 278 

Fort Atkinson, 14, 50, 55, 239. 

Fort Bridger, 199. 

Fort Calhoun, 25, 52, 278. 

Fort Childs, 165. 

Fort Crawford, 199. 

Fort Farnam, 199. 

Fort Fetterman, 199. 

Fort Gothenburg, 199. 

Fort Hall, 199. 

Fort Halleck, 199. 

Fort Hartsuff, 199. 



Fort Independence Rock, 199. 

Fort Kearny, 89, 159, 199, 246, 257. 

Fort Kearny, New, 165. 

Fort Kearny, Old, 165. 

Fort LaBonte, 199. 

Fort Laramie, 81, 88, 97, 98, 123, 

126, 147, 159, 167, 199, 237. 
Fort Laramie, Council of 1851, 78. 
Fort Laramie, Treaty, 81, 148, 151. 
Fort Lewis, 199. 
Fort Lisa, 37, 55. 
Fort McPherson, 168. 
Fort McPherson Militarj^ Cemetery, 

198. 
Fort Manila, 199. 
Fort Pierre, 41. 
Fort Robinson, 126, 152. 
Fort Saunders, 199. 
Fort Sidney, 199. 
Fort Steele, 199. 
Fort Wallace, 131. 
Fort White River Camp, 199. 
Fort William, 167. 
Four Horns, 80. 
Fox Indians, 299. 
Francis, Charles, 196. 
Fray Marcos, 1. 
Free Silver, 279. 
Free Soil Partv, 110. ■ 
Freeman, Daniel, 110, 257. 
Freeman, Miss Minnie, 163. 
Fremont, John C, 56, 82, 232. 
Fremont, 83, 118, 242, 246, 254, 264. 
French and Indian War, 222. 
Frenchman's Fork, 125. 
Furnas, Governor Robert W., 208, 

253, 257, 264. 

Gage County, 85, 110, 257. 
Gale, Dr. John, 175. 
Garber, Governor Silas, 265. 
Garden County, 44, 85, 89, 146. 
Gates of Sheridan, 107. 
Germans in Nebraska, 67. 
Ghost Dance, 156, 277. 
Gillespie, John G., 260. 
Gilson, Mr., 188. 
Goebel, Mrs. Adolph, 161. 
Gold in Nebraska, 253. 
Good Templars, 266. 
Gosper Count v, 85. 
Grain Shipments. 300. 
Grand Island, 44, 85, 145, 272. 
Grange, 265. 



310 



INDEX 



Grangers, 270. 

Grant, President U. S., 152, 256. 

Gnascitares, 9. 

Grasshopper Constitution, 268. 

Grasshoppers, 183. 

Grattan, Lieutenant, 98, 149, 199. 

Gray Eyes, 51. 

Great .American Desert, 45, 231, 253. 

Great Buffalo Plains, 231. 

Greeley County, 266. 

Grover, head scout, 132. 

Grow, Galusha A., 110. 

Half Breed Strip, 103. 

Hall County, 85, 89, 145, 251. 

Hamilton County, 266. 

Harahev, 4. 

Hard Winter, 246. 

Hardv, 30, 117. 

Hamev, General, 149, 246. 

Hastin'gs, 264, 282. 

Haumann, Hannah, 188. 

Haumann, Retta, 188. 

Haumann, Tillie, 188. 

Haj'den, Professor, 56. 

Haves County, 187. 

Henrj^ 152. 

Hercules, slave, 102. 

Herd Law, The," 178. 

Highwavs, Public, 298. 

Hitchcock Count V, 82, 118. 

Holcomb, Governor Silas A., 210, 278. 

Holt County, 162, 163, 187, 266. 

Homestead, First, 110. 

Homestead, Free, 255, 257. 

Homesteads, 270. 

Hopi Indians, 1. 

Horse Creek, 78, 148. 

Horse Stealing, 273. 

Hot Wind oi 1894, 274. 

Howard County, 118, 160, 266. 

Hudson's Bay Company, 35, 232. 

Hunt, Wilson Price, 41. 

Illinois Indians, 218. 
Impeachment Trial, 278. 
Indi.\n Chiefs: 

American Horse, 152. 

Bear, The, 98, 149. 

Big Elk, 4, 6, 52. 

Big Foot, 278. 

Big Horse, 25. 

Black Bear, 123. 

Black Moon, 80. 



IxDi-\x Chief.s — cotiiin ued: 

Black Robe, 79. 

Blackbird, 18, 26, 60, 226. 

Bull Bear, 147. 

Crazy Horse, 126, 153, 155. 

Crow Dog, 155. 

Esta Maza, 175. 

Fontenelle, Logan, 94. 

Fool-Robes-Son, 47. 

Four Horns, 80. 

Graj' Eyes, 51. 

Iron Eves, 175. 

Itan, 70. 

Ivnife Chief, 47. 

Little Thief, 25. 

Long Hair, 47. 

Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, 152. 

Melhunca, 73. 

Pani LeShar, 128. 

Pawnee Killer, 108. 

Red Cloud, 79, 123, 126, 146, 265 

Roman Nose, 133. 

Shake Hand, 27. 

Shines White, 172. 

Sittmg Bull, 79, 126, 152. 

Spotted Horse, 199. 

Spotted Tail, 126, 146. 151. 

Standing Bear, 171, 176. 

Struck-bv-the-Pawnee, 27. 

Tall Bull, 125. 

Tecumseh, 35. 

Turkev Leg, 125. 

Two Crows, 181. 

Wajepa, 182. 

Whistler, 108. 

White Bear, 51. 

White Cow, 46. 

White Crane, 27. 

White Eagle, 173. 

White Horse, 25. 
Indian Council at Horsecreek, 150. 
Indian Rights, 300. 
Indian War at Pme Ridge, 277. 
Initiative and Referendum, 288. 
Inman, 163. 

Iowa Settlers, First, 238. 
loway Indians, 37, 46, 74, 75. 
Iron Eyes, 175. 
Irrigation, 285. 
Isopete, 3. 
Itan. 70. 
Izard, Governor Mark W., 242, 250. 

James, Governor W. H., 263. 



INDEX 



311 



Jefferson, Thomas, 24. 

Jefferson County, 85, 104, 139, 266. 

Johnson, President Andrew, 258. 

Joliet, Louis, 219. 

Jones, Ben, 41. 

Julesburg, 90. 

Kansas City, 15. 

Kanzes Indians, 15. 

Kearney, 138. 

Kearney County, 85, 89. 

Kearny, Fort Phil, 150. 

Keith County, 47, 85. 

Kennard, Thos. P., 260. 

Kennedy, Major WilHam Clark, 75. 

Kinkaid, Congressman M. P., 286. 

Kinkaid Homestead Act, 286. 

Kit-ke-hahk-i, 114. 

Ivnife Chiet, 47. 

I^ox County, 19, 169, 266. 

La Flesche, Joseph, 175. 

La Flesche, Mary, 175. 

La Flesche, Susette, 175. 

Lancaster County, 89, 261. 

I^and, Rise in Price, 285. 

Land Grants, 263. 

Land Laws, 241, 270. 

Language Law, 298. 

La Hontan, 9. 

La Joie, Madam, 38. 

Laramie Plains, 124. 

Laramie River, 68 

Leavenworth, General, 51. 

LeClerc, Francis, 41. 

Lee, Captain Thomas J., 104. 

Legislature, First, 240. 

Lewis & Clark, 21, 24, 31, 35. 

Lexington, 124. 

Libraries, Free, 300. 

Lincoln, President Abraham, 110, 

137, 256, 260. 
Lincoln, 89, 177, 260, 263, 266, 276. 
Lincoln County, 198. 
Lin wood, 118. 
Liquor License, 252. 
Lisa, Manuel, 34, 41, 55, 103, 301. 
Lisa, Raymond, 38. 
Lisa, Rosalie, 38. 
Little Big Horn Battle, 126, 153. 
Little Bow River, 226. 
Little Blue, 139. 
LeShara, 118. 
Little Thief, 25. 



Logan River, 177 

Log Cabins, 261. 

Lone Tree, 92. 

Long Major Stephen H., 45. 

Long Hair, 47. 

Loup River, 47, 227. 

Louisiana, 24. 

Louisiana Purchase, 223. 

Louisville, 7. 

Lusitania, 292. 

Lux, Fireman, 201. 

McCoy, Rev. Isaac, 103. 

McKelvie, Governor Samuel R.j_297. 

McKenzie, General, 127. 

McKinley, President William, 280. 

McLellan, Robert, 41. 

Madison County, 266. 

Mahas or Omahas, 219. 

Majors, Alexander, 102. 

Mallet, Brothers, 15. 

Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses, 152. 

Mandan Indians, 37, 59. 

Manners, Charles A., 104. 

Marquette, Father, 218. 

Martha, slave, 102. 

Martin, George, 145. 

Martin, Nathaniel, 145. 

Martin, Robert, 145. 

Maseburg, Mr., 189. 

Maximilian, Prince, 40, 52, 56, 62. 

Melhunca, 73. 

Merrick County, 89, 93, 118. 

Merrill, Moses, 70. 

Merrill, Mr. & Mrs., 243. 

Merrill, Samuel Pearce, 74. 

Mickey, Governor John H., 283. 

Middleton, "Doc," 273. 

Midland Pacific Railroad, 263 

Milford, 172. 

Militia, State, 270. 

Millard, J. H., 282. 

Miller, Dr. George L., 173, 248. 

Miller, Joseph, 41. 

Minneconjou Sioux, 97. 

Mira Valley, 163. 

Missiouris Indians, 299. 

Missouria Indians, 12, 13, 19, 46. 

Mssouri Compromise, 100, 234. 

Missouri Pacific Railroad, 269. 

Missouri River (numerous references) 

Mitain, 38. 

Mockett Law, 289-293. 

Morgan's Island, 64. 



312 



INDEX 



Mormon Cow, 97. 
Mormon Trail, 88. 
Morning Star Sacrifice, 117. 
Morrill County, 89, 120. 
Morehead, Governor John H., 289. 
Morton, J. Sterling, 56, 129, 206, 248. 
Murie, Captain, 125. 

Nance, Governor Albinus, 268 
Nance Comity, 118, 123. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 24, 22.3. 
Narrows, The, 139. 
Neapolis, 251. 

Nebraska, First Account of, 15, 24 
Nebraska, Naming of, 83, 231, 232. 
Nebraska churches. First, 245. 
Nebraska City, 89, 100, 165, 238, 

243, 253, 263. 
Nebraska City Cut-off, 89. 
Nebraska, First Bill, 233. 
Nebraska, First Code, 241. 
Nebraska, First Counties, 241. 
Nebraska Indians, 226. 
Nebraska, State Flower, 204. 
Nebraska Territory, 237. 
Nebraska, the Indian Country-, 232. 
Nebraska Under Three Flags, 218. 
Nebraska, Great Seal, 202. 
Nebraska-Kansas Bill, 234. 
Nebrathka, 233. 
Nemaha River, Great, 63, 103. 
Nemaha River, Little, 25, 64, 100, 

103. 
Nemaha Coimty, 266. 
Neville, Governor Keith, 291. 
Nicomi, 175. 
Niobrara River, 19, 27, 99, 153, 169, 

172, 226. 
Niobrara, 269. 
Norfolk, 254. 
North, Major Frank, 122 
North Bend, 138. 
North Platte, 41, 125. 
Northwestern Railroad, 269. 
Nuckolls, S. F., 101. 
Nuckolls Coimty, 85. 

Octotatoes or Otoes, 15, 219. 
Oglala Sioux, 97, 131, 146. 
Oklahoma, 299. 

Omaha, 25, 45, 57, 65, 89, 94, 137. 
177, 240, 243, 246, 254, 281, 282. ' 
Omaha Creek, 26. 
Omaha Herald, 176. 



Omaha Indian Council, 181. 

Omaha Indian Dance, 66. 

Omaha Indians, 18, 46, 55, 65, 70, 

94, 175, 226, 238, 299. 
Omaha &■ North Western Railroad, 

264. 
O'Neill, 286. 
Open Well, 192. 
Oregon Trail, 42, 77, 82, 85, 97, 148, 

159, 165, 167, 200, 237. 
Osage Indians, 12. 
Osceola, 118, 268, 283. 
Otoe County, 89, 102, 129, 158, 2M , 

260. 
Otoe Indians, 12, 13, 19, 25, 37, 4^, 

55, 65, 70, 226, 238, 299. 
Otoe Missions, 72. 
Otoe Reservation in Nebraska, 172. 
Overland ISIail, 90. 
Overland Trails, 85, 92, 139. 

Pacific Railroad, 57. 

Padoucas, River of, 16. 

Palladium, Nebraska's Fir.<:t News- 
paper, 57. 

Panimahas, 15. 

Pani LeShar, 128. 

Panic of 1857, 249. 

Panic of 1873, 264. 

Panic of 1893, 274. 

Panis or Pawnees, 219. 

Papillion, 47, 57. 

Papillion Creek, 18, 47 

Pathfinder Dam, 83. 

Pawnee Agency, 123. 

Pawnee Council, 242. 

Pawnee County, 129, 263. 

Pawnee Indians, 2, 4, 13, 19, 37, 46, 
51, 55, 70, 114, 147, 181, 199, 227, 
243, 254, 265, 299. 

Pawnee Killer, 108. 

Pawnee Scouts, 122. 

Pawnee, Wars of, 117. 

Pekatanoui or Missouri River, 219. 

Penalosa, Don Diego de, 6. 

People's Independent Party, 279. 

People's Ticket, 252. 

Pershing, General John J., 294. 

Petahauerat, 114. 

Petalesharu, 47, 242. 254 

Phelps County, 85, 266. 

Pierce, President Franklin, 236. 

Pierce County, 163, 187. 

Pike, Lieutenant Zebulon M., 29. 



INDEX 



313 



Pike's Peak, 149, 253. 

Pine Ridge, 177. 

Pine Ridge Agency, 155. 

Pine Ridge Indian War, 277. 

Pioneer Preachers, 245. 

Pizarro, 6. 

Plain view, 163. 

Platte County, 89, 118, 128. 

Platte River (numerous references). 

Plattsmouth, 130, 263. 

Plum Creek, 124. 

Political Revolution of 1890, 275. 

Polk County, 118, 266. 

Ponca Creek, 170. 

Ponca Indians, 12, 19, 37, 169, 226, 

265, 299. 
Ponca Treaty, 170. 
Pony Express, 90. 
Poppleton, A. J., 130, 173. 
Populist Party, 279. 
Pottawatomie Indians, 77. 
Potts, 31. 

Powder River, 127. 
Powder River Country, 150. 
Poynter, Governor William A., 281. 
Prairie Fire, 142. 
Prairie Flower, 172. 
Prairie Schooner, 261. 
Pre-emption, 270. 
Presbvterian Church Mission, 56. 
Prison Rebellion, 268. 
Prohibition repealed, 252. 
Prohibition ratified, 291. 
Progressive Party, 289. 
Promontory Point, 138. 
Pueblo Indians, 2. 

Quarter Stake, 105. 
Quivira Land, 2. 

Railroad Building, 263. 
Railroad Regulation, 287. 
Rainfall, Return, 283. 
Randolph, G. C. 140. 
Randolph, Hattie P., 140. 
Reclamation Act, 286. 
Red Cloud, 79, 123, 126, 146, 265. 
Red Cloud Agencv, New, 152. 
Red Cloud Agency, Old, 152. 
Red Cloud Citv, 118. 
Red Ribbon Clubs, 266. 
Red Pipestone Quarry, 60. 
Relief for drought, 274. 
Republican Party, 250, 256, 280. 



Republican Party returns to power. 

282. 
Republican River, 4, 12, 30, 117, 131, 

146, 227. 
Republican Valley, 108, 265. 
Richardson, O. D., 242. 
Richardson, Governor W. A., 251. 
Richardson County, 25, 103, 158, 251, 

266. 
Rock Bluffs, 129. 
Rock County, 187. 
Rock Island Railroad, 269. 
Roman Nose, 133. 
Roosevelt, President Theodore, 286, 

289. 
Rosebud Agency, 155. 
Royce, Miss Louise, 16o. 
Rulo, 25. 
Rustler War, 273. 

Sagean, Mathieu, 9. 

Saint Joseph, 90. 

Saint Joseph & Denver Railroad, 264. 

Saint Louis, 35, 37. 

St. Paul, Nebraska, 160. 

Saline County, 104, 266. 

Salt Creek, 249, 261. 

Sand Hills, 187. 

Santa Fe, 14, 16, 29, 51. 

Santee Sioux Indians, 299. 

Sarpy, Peter A., 56, 82. 

Sarpv County, 18, 57, 89. 

Sauk Indians, 299. 

Saunders, Governor Alvin, 257. 

Saunders County, 70, 118, 251, 261 

266. 
Savage, Governor Ezra P., 282. 
School, redistricting, 298. 
School lands, 279. 
School Monev Stolen, 278. 
Scott's Bluff ,^68, 89. 
Scott's Bluff County, 78, 85, 89. 
Second Nebraska Regiment, 257. 
Seward, 89, 104, 163, 201, 261, 263. 
SejTnour, Thomas, 59. 
Shake Hand, 27. 

Shallenberger, Governor A. C, 287. 
Shattuck, Miss Etta, 163. 
Sheldon, Governor George L., 287. 
Shell Creek, 47, 118, 226. 
Sheridan, General Philip A., 126. 
Sheridan County, 107, 187. 
Sherman, General W. T., 79, 151 

166, 171. 



314 



INDEX 



Shinn's Ferry, 89. 

Shines White, 172. 

Shoshone, 147. 

Sitting Bull, 79, 126, 152. 

Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, 264. 

Sioux County, 126. 

Sioux Indians, 19, 27, 37, 38, 51, 74, 

79, 95, 97, 108, 117, 120, 122, 145, 

146, 169, 181, 227, 243, 246, 265, 

277. 
Sioux Indian Council, 1889, 156. 
Sioux Treaty near Chadron, 153. 
Sioux Wars, 149, 156, 166, 199, 257. 
Sixth Principal Meridian. 105. 
Skidi Pawnees, 15, 114, 116, 170. 
Slavery among Pawnees, 117. 
Slavery in Nebraska, 100. 
Slavery Prohibited, 255. 
Small Pox, 20. 
Smithsonian Museum, 22. 
Snake Indians, 41, 147. 
Sod Houses, 261. 
Soldiers, Nebraska, 296. 
Spanish Caravan, The, 12, 221. 
Spanish War, 281. 
South Pass, 42, 82, 86. 
South Platte Secession, 253. 
Spencer Seven Shooter Rifles, 123, 

133. 
Spotted. Horse, 199. 
Spotted Tail, 126, 146, 151. 
Spotted Tail Agency, 152. 
Stacey, Mr., 188. 
Stage Coach, 90. 
Standing Bear, 171, 176. 
Stanton County, 104, 266. 
Statehood, first attempt, 255. 
Statehood, attained, 258. 
Steam wagon road, 253. 
Stuart, Robert, 41. 
Stotsenberg, Colonel, 281. 
Storms, Great, 158. 
Strike at Omaha, 270. 
Strike, Great '^Q", 273. 
Struck-by-the-Pawnee, 27. 
Sublette, Milton, 86. 
Sugar beets, 285. 
Summer Tillage, 285. 
Summit Springs, 125. 
Sun Dance, 156. 
Surveyors, 103. 

Tabor, Iowa, 100. 

Taft, President WiUiam H., 289. 



Tall Bull, 125. 

Tatar rax. 2. 

Taxes, 286. 

Tecumseh, 35. 

Telegram, First, 256. 

Telephones, 302. 

Thayer, Governor John M., 130, 242, 

243, 254, 256, 272. 
Thayer County, 85, 266. 
Thedford, 188. 
Thomas County, 187. 
Thurston County, 26. 
Tibbies, T. H., 176. 
Timber Claims, 270. 
Tipton, T. W., 130. 
Tirawa, 116, 120. 
Trans-Mississippi Exposition, 281. 
Tree Planter's State, 210. 
Turkev Leg, 125. 
Turk, The, 2. 

Two-cent railroad fare, 287. 
Two Crows, 181. 

Umphrey, E., 140. 

Undergroimd Railroad, 100. 

Union Pacific Railroad, 90, 123, 126, 

136. 
Ute Indians, 117, 147. 

Valla, Andri, 41. 
Valley County, 266. 
Vigilance Committees, 273 

Wade, Kid, 273. 

Wajepa, 182. 

Walker, C. H., 208. 

War Bonds and Stamps, 295 

Washmgton County, 25. 

Wayne Countv, 104. 

Webster, John h., 173. 

Weeping Water River, 25, 65, 74. 

Western Engineer Steamboat, 45. 

Western Nebraska, 269. 

Westphalen, Mrs. Peter, 162. 

West Point, 254. 

Whig Party, 234. 

Whistler, 108. 

White Bear, 51. 

White Cow, 46. 

White Crane, 27. 

White Eagle, 173. 

White Horse, 25. 

White River Valley, 152. 

White Stone Hills, 257. 



INDEX 



315 



Wicmta maians, 118. 

Wilcox, (Merrill) Eliza, 70. 

Wild Cat Days, 249. 

Wilkins, William, 232. 

Wilson, President Woodrow, 289. 

Wilson, Mrs. 162. 

Winnebago Indians, 299. 

Winter Wheat, 285. 

Women's Clubs, 300. 

Woman Suffrage, 290, 298. 

Woodhurst, Mrs., 268. 

Workman's Compensation Law, 289. 



World War, 291. 

Wounded Knee, 135, 156, 278 

Wyeth, Nathaniel J., 86. 

Yellowstone, Steamer, 59, 62. 
York, 263. 
York County, 89. 
Young, Brigham, 56. 
Yutan. 71 

Zuni Indians, 1 



